The Hour of Chaos
by S.S. Armageddon
Summary: In a world threatened with complete destruction, the fate of many lies in the hands of few...
1. The Battle Of Angel Island

The Hour Of Chaos

Sonic lowered his head and charged forward, bullets passing so close to his ears that he could hear them whistling through the air. His legs ached from running, and his feet felt as though they were swollen inside of his half-melted shoes. Sonic glanced down at his red and white sneakers and noticed that their soles were hanging from the rest of his shoes, slapping against his feet every stride he took. Since his legs were moving so fast that they were blurring, the sound of the flapping soles had turned into a steady roar. Sonic looked up to see that the line of robots that he was charging was roughly twenty meters from his position. Their metallic arms were outstretched and spewing a hail of bullets in his direction, but none hit their target. Sonic was moving fast by now, weaving through clusters of soldiers and tanks, deaf to the screams of wounded or dying soldiers; he was fully concentrated on reaching the line of mechs. His arms pumped wildly, his breath exploding from his lungs. He couldn't remember the last time he had run this hard for so long. Before Sonic knew what was happening, he had already crashed into the wall of Eggmans robots. Sonic leapt over a barrage of bullets and kicked one of the robot's squarely in the center of it's metal forehead. It's head snapped backwards, sparks shooting from the damaged power couplings of the machine's neck. The robots arm waved wildy, spraying it's own squad mates with bullets.

Sonic leapt from robot to robot, his fists and feet blurring as they pummeled the helpless machines into scrap metal, but for every robot he destroyed, two more took it's place. _Oh, man. At this rate I'll never be able to get to the Egg Fortress, _Sonic thought.

The Egg Fleet had attacked Angel Island in hopes of obtaining the Master Emerald, but Doctor Eggman hadn't expected that they were anticipating this attack. Robotnik had also underestimated Knuckles's ferocity when his home island was attacked. The last time Sonic saw Knuckles, he had been smashing robots left and right as they tried to lay hold of the Master Emerald. Now Sonic was surrounded by robots, all with their gun arms trained at Sonic's head. Sonic sighed. _Oh well, I had a good run. Heh. Run. I made a funny,_ Sonic thought dismally.

Sonic was expecting to feel every bullet pass through his body, but the feeling never came. Instead, Sonic was lifted off of the ground by Wave The Swallow. Sonic grinned as the other two members of the Babylon Rogues zipped into the fray on their Extreme Gear, destroying robots as they flew by.

"Havin' a little trouble there, eh amigo?" Jet laughed as he smacked a robot's head clean off of it's shoulders with the end of his _Type-J _Extreme Gear. The last thing Sonic saw before being carried off into the clouds was Storm, stuttering like a madman while crushing Eggmans mechs with his powerful fists.

"Where to, hedgehog?" Wave asked as they soared over the clouds.

"Eggmans flagship, and it's about time you got here!" Sonic shouted over the whistling wind.

"We got held up by some of Eggheads ships on the way," Wave said. They flew higher and higher– almost flying right into the middle of a dogfight between the _Tornado Three_ and an Egg Fighter. Wave swerved to the right to avoid the _Tornado's_ wing, and Sonic felt her grip on his hands slipping.

"Hang on to me!" Sonic shouted desperately. He had no desire to fall from forty-thousand feet in the air.

"I'm trying, but there's robot oil all over your gloves!" Wave cried. She reached out and grabbed Sonic's forearm, hoisting him up onto her board.

"Phew!" Sonic muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. He turned to Wave and smiled. "Thanks," he said. Wave grinned.

"Yeah, you owe me one now. Here you go!" she said, dropping Sonic onto the Egg Fortresses hull.

"You're not helping?" Sonic asked Wave in surprise. She shrugged.

"Sorry, I gotta go help the other Rogues. Luck to you here, blue boy!" Wave said as she turned and flew back towards Angel Island. Sonic sighed and looked up at the Egg Fortresses bridge. For now, he was on his own.

-----

Tails ducked as Wave tore past the _Tornado_ yet again. He didn't have time to wonder if the rest of the Babylon Rogues were fighting as well. The Egg fighter that was tailing him was getting dangerously accurate with it's shots, and whenever Tails attempted to loop behind it, it copied his maneuver and looped behind the _Tornado_. Tails ground his teeth in frustration. _Eggman must have upgraded them before this battle,_ Tails thought.

Tails was leading the air defense of Angel Island alongside Charmy. Tails had been surprised to find that Charmy was a better pilot than him, and Tails had chosen the shrill-voiced bee as the leader of the second division of air fighters. When chosen, Charmy had squealed with joy and shot up into the air, his wings buzzing furiously.

Now, Tails activated his headset communicator and wired it to connect to Charmy's headset. Tails was relieved as he heard a familiar buzzing, singsong voice through the headset. "Hmm, hmm... oh. Hey, what's up, Tails?" Charmy asked.

"Charmy, you're okay! Listen, I need a little help over here!" Tails cried into the microphone attached to the headset.

"Bzzz, bzzz... yep, I see you. Be there in a sec," Charmy buzzed. Two seconds later, Tails saw Charmy's fighter come hurtling out of the clouds. "Here I am, Tails. Wanna try Broken Scissors?" Charmy asked. Broken Scissors was an air maneuver that Charmy had invented himself. It was shockingly simple, and even more shockingly effective.

"That won't work unless you have someone on your tail," Tails said.

"I do".

Tails saw that it was true. A large Egg Fighter was following Charmy closely, firing laser blast after laser blast at Charmy's fighter, which was painted yellow with black stripes. "Alright then," Tails said, angling the nose of the _Tornado_ towards Charmy's fighter. Charmy copied this move, flying directly towards the _Tornado Three_. The two fighters came closer to each other, when at the last second, they both swerved in opposite directions, not touching each other at all. The Egg Fighters weren't so lucky, as they both collided with each other, turning both into a gigantic, pulsating fireball.

"Yahoo! It worked!" Charmy screeched. Tails flinched as the bee's voice shrieked in his ears, but he grinned anyways.

"Great job Charmy! Did you see Sonic and Wave?" Tails asked.

"I saw Wave fly me a second ago, but not Sonic. Why?" Charmy asked.

Tails frowned. "I think I have an idea where Sonic was going. Follow me, Charmy!" Tails said.

"Yes sir!" Charmy buzzed. Both fighters turned and shot off towards the Egg Fortress. Charmy shivered. "I don't know about this Tails. I remember this place, and I remember that I didn't like it one bit. Are you sure Sonic is here?" he asked.

Tails nodded. "I'm positive. Sonic would want to find Eggman, and if I know Eggman, he's locked himself up in the command bridge of this place".

Tails peered down at the hull of the massive flagship, his eyes searching for anything blue. Suddenly Charmy buzzed wildly and pointed down at one of the large power cables crisscrossing the ship's surface. "There he is! There he is!" Charmy cried. Tails nodded.

"Alright Charmy, lets get ready for the worst," Tails said, and flew down towards Sonic.

-----

Sonic dashed along the power cable that lead to the main power generator. If he could destroy it, the Egg Fortress would once again be destroyed. Knowing Eggman, he would escape in an Egg Pod, but at least his fleet would be destroyed. Sonic's grin faded as he saw a giant robot standing on one of the power line maintenance platforms in front of him. Sonic narrowed his eyes. During his last visit to the floating Egg Fortress, Knuckles had taken care of these robots, but Knuckles was on Angel Island fending off hordes of robots from the Master Emerald's Shrine at this moment. Sonic was on his own, or so he thought. Sonic was about to prepare himself for a tough battle when the robot was suddenly blasted apart by a hail of bullets. Sonic, utterly confused, looked up to see Tails and Charmy grinning down at him from their fighters.

"Need some help Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Nice job guys! Follow me now. We've got an Egg to crack!" Sonic cried. With that, he sped down along the power cable towards the power generator with Tails and Charmy following closely behind.

-----

Shadow kicked his feet together to ignite his Air Shoes. "Rouge!" he shouted. The bat turned and hooked her arm around Shadow's arm. She spun around in place, and Shadow's feet were lifted from the ground as he began to run along the inside of the circle of robots that was closing around Rouge, Shadow, and Omega. Rouge let go of Shadow and he flipped forward, kicking two of the machines in their bowl-like stomachs.

"Scan complete. Approximately two-thousand eight-hundred enemies surround us," Omega said in his usual deadpan, metallic voice.

"Can you do us a favor and keep those kind of things to yourself?" Rouge growled as she kicked a robot aside. Shadow grunted in agreement and spin dashed into four of Eggmans robots, knocking them over like bowling pins.

"Affirmative," Omega said and began blasting the other machines with his arm mounted laser cannons.

The trio of warriors were right in the thick of the battle of Angel Island, and were completely surrounded by a sea of enemy machines at the moment. Shadow had at first wanted nothing to do with the battle, but Omega leapt at the chance to fight Eggman's forces, and since Rouge had become worried and followed him, Shadow found himself tagging along after the only two friends he had. For the fifth time during the battle Shadow wondered,_ why does the Doctor want the Master Emerald, and why _now, _of all times?_ Shadow's thoughts were interrupted as his feet left the ground. Startled, Shadow looked up to see that Rouge was holding onto his wrists and was beating her wings furiously.

"What are you doing?" Shadow asked.

"We have to get out of here. There's too many of them," Rouge said. Shadow suddenly felt a tremendous weight pulling at his ankles and looked down to see that Omega was holding onto his ankles with his metal claws. Rouge gasped as they dropped alarmingly low. Eggmans robots were grabbing at Omega's feet. Rouge beat her wings even harder, but Omega still dragged them lower. "Omega, you're too heavy!" Rouge cried. Shadow ignited his Air Shoes and they flew a few inches higher, but Omega's bulk still proved to be too much.

Omega looked down at the sea of robots under him, then up at his two friends. He gauged their chances of survival if he remained holding onto Shadow's feet– twenty percent. Then he gauged their chances of survival without him– sixty-six percent. "Affirmative," Omega said and let go of Shadow's ankles.

Shadow's eyes widened as Omega fell into the swarm of mechs. "Omega!" he shouted, struggling to break free of Rouge's grip. Rouge gasped in shock as Omega disappeared under thousands of metal limbs. "Let go! I have to go help him!" Shadow shouted at Rouge.

"You can't, it's too dangerous!" Rouge cried. She looked back down at the robots, then towards the safety of the command post that was set up in the forest.

"Go get GUN! I'll help Omega, just let go!" Shadow shouted. Rouge looked at Shadow, then down at the Egg Pawns swarming underneath them.

"Just be careful," Rouge said and let Shadow drop. She watched until she could no longer see him in the fray, then flew off towards the GUN command post. When she landed, she informed the soldiers that there were two GUN allies that needed help in the battlefield.

Rouge was about to follow them to help her friends when she noticed that the shrine of the Master Emerald was under attack. Rouge looked longingly at the small point of light that was the Master Emerald, then back to the battlefield where Shadow and Omega were fighting. _They can hold out for a little while,_ Rouge thought at last. She spread her wings and took off in the direction of the shrine, with thoughts of the biggest emerald in the world dancing in her mind.

-----

Although GUN had set up a command post near the Shrine Of The Master Emerald, it was still under heavy attack. Robots bombarded GUN sentry robots and vehicles, but were careful not to target the Master Emerald. GUN had wanted to move the emerald to a secure location, but Knuckles The Echidna had insisted that it stay where it was. After seeing Knuckles' ferocity when any of the Egg Pawns attempted to touch the Master Emerald, GUN was careful not to try to move it anywhere.

At the moment, Eggmans Egg Pawns had resumed their attack on the shrine. Knuckles leapt onto the shoulders of one of them and pummeled it's domed head into submission. Another actually managed to touch the Master Emerald, but Knuckles roared and knocked it to the ground, pummeling it until it was a heap of twisted metal an sparking wires. Knuckles leapt to his feet as an explosion split through the air. "Woah..." Knuckles whispered as one of the ships in Eggmans fleet went up in flames. The ship wobbled in the air, then began to plummet downward in a huge lump of melting metal and searing flames. Knuckles heard a loud _clunk_ and turned to see that one of the Egg Pawns had picked up the Master Emerald and was struggling down the steps of the shrine with it's prize. _Oh no you don't,_ Knuckles thought as he dove at the Egg Pawn. The poor robot turned to defend itself too late. Knuckles' powerful fist smashed into it's face. The pawn staggered back and fell down the steps pf the shrine as the Master Emerald slipped from its grasp.

Time seemed to slow as Knuckles saw the Master Emerald fall and bounce towards the edge of Angel Island, the last traces of the setting sun glinting off of it's shiny surface. Knuckles reached for the emerald as it slipped off of the edge of Angel Island– and missed it.

"_No!_" Knuckles cried as the Master Emerald fell. He couldn't believe it. He had failed his duty to protect the emerald for the final time. It would shatter into far too many pieces to collect again. Plus, Angel Island would fall to earth without the power of the Master Emerald to keep it afloat. Knuckles lowered his head and groaned loudly. Already he could feel the island beginning to lose altitude.

"Why so down, treasure hunter?" a familiar voice floated to him from above. Knuckles knew who it was before he even saw her. The sound of leathery wings flapping told him that it was Rouge. Knuckles looked up to see her flying over him and holding the Master Emerald in her arms.

"Give me that!" Knuckles cried. Rouge scowled.

"Well, I'm disappointed to see you here too," she said. Then she grinned, showing both of her small, white fangs. "You want it? Catch!" Rouge said and tossed the emerald to Knuckles.

"Hey! Be careful!" Knuckles cried as the emerald sailed through the air and fell into his arms. Rouge raised an eyebrow.

"Not even a 'thank you'? I see that you still haven't learned any manners," she said. Knuckles placed the Master Emerald back in it's altar. Angel Island immediately stopped sinking towards earth.

" I see that you're still running around stealing people's jewels," Knuckles retorted. "I'm surprised you came back after the last ass-whipping I gave you back when we fought on the ARK".

Rouge scowled."Swearing in front of a lady is one thing, but bragging about beating one is quite another! Maybe I should _teach _you manners if you don't want to learn them!" Rouge said, landing lightly in front of Knuckles. Knuckles grinned.

"I take it you want me to beat you again?" he snickered. Rouge just smiled icily.

"By the time I'm finished with you, you'll have eaten those words _and _learned some manners," she said.

Knuckles grinned. "Come on, bat girl. Make me".

Rouge swung her leg in a roundhouse kick aimed at Knuckles' head, but he ducked at the last second. Knuckles countered by grabbing her foot and shoved her backwards. Rouge lost her balance and fell to the ground, her head hitting against the stone of the Master Emeralds shrine. Rouge shot Knuckles a venomous look and jumped to her feet. Knuckles swung his fist at Rouge slowly when he attacked. After all, he didn't actually want to hurt her. It was a mistake. Rouge stepped back as Knuckles charged at her and kicked him in his right shin. Knuckles yelped in pain and fell flat on his face, much to the amusement of Rouge.

"Aw, did I hurt the wittle baby echidna? Does he have a boo-boo?" Rouge taunted in a baby voice. Now Knuckles really _did_ want to fight. He snarled and scrambled up from the ground, not noticing that his nose was bleeding. Rouge wasn't afraid. "Put up a real fight this time, Knucklehead," Rouge sneered. Knuckles punched at Rouge, who ducked and swiped her foot at Knuckles' ankles in an attempt to trip him. Knuckles jumped over the low kick and hit Rouge in the side of the head with a backhand punch. One of Knuckles' fist spikes grazed Rouge's ear, leaving a long, but shallow cut from the base of Rouge's ear to it's tip. Knuckles punched at her again, but Rouge's arm flew up, blocking the blow. Knuckles reeled as Rouge hit him with a devastating right hook to his jaw. A blow like that would have brought most humans down, but Knuckles was much tougher than any human that he had ever met. Knuckles tasted blood in his mouth and for a moment he feared that Rouge had knocked out one of his teeth. No, he had just cut the inside of his cheek on one of his sharp canines.

"Alright bat girl, I've gone easy on you until now, but-" Knuckles turned around and was cut off as both of Rouge's feet connected with his jaw. Knuckles fell backwards, teetered dangerously on the edge of Angel Island, then tumbled off into the air. Knuckles tried to scream, but found that his mouth was almost half filled with blood from Rouge's double-heeled kick at his mouth, and all that came out was a wild "dluuugh!"

Suddenly Knuckles felt something catch his hand, and he stopped falling. Knuckles blinked and looked up to see that Rouge was hanging from the lip of Angel Island with one hand and holding him with the other. Knuckles' eyes widened. This was an almost an exact re-enactment of his battle with Rouge on the ARK, only that time he had caught Rouge. Her words suddenly floated to the surface of his mind. _"Saving my life... don't think I owe you one! You just wanted to hold my hand, didn't you?"_ How had he responded to that? Now he remembered. _"Think what you want, bat girl. I was saving the pieces of the Master Emerald that you have!"_ Knuckles sighed as Rouge hoisted him back up onto Angel Island. _Keep telling yourself that, Knux,_ he thought.

Rouge sat down, panting. "I guess... I guess we're even then huh?" she said. Knuckles nodded and looked up. Suddenly he wondered how they had fought with an entire battle raging around them. Knuckles looked at Rouge, who looked as though she had forgotten that they had been trading punches just a moment ago. "Sorry," Rouge said quickly, as if she had been dreading saying it, then finally decided to get it over with.

"Uh-huh," Knuckles said. He wanted to say "don't worry about it" or, "it's okay", but he was afraid it would seem awkward. After all, Rouge almost killed him. "Why are you here?" Knuckles asked, suddenly curious. He found that his jaw hurt when he talked. He hoped Rouge hadn't broken it. "You're not with Eggman, are you?"

Rouge shook her head. "No. I'm here with Shadow and Omega, but I lost them a little while back," she said.

"Shouldn't you go try to find them?" Knuckles asked. Rouge shrugged.

"I think they can hold their own ground for awhile. I sent some GUN troops to go help them out," she said.

Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "So you just came here so you could steal the Master Emerald while they were gone, right?" Knuckles asked. Rouge looked at him innocently.

"Not _steal_ it. Just to look at it, that's all," she said. Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, sure," he said sarcastically. There was a moment of awkward silence where both didn't seem to know what to say next. "Um... thanks for saving me," Knuckles said.

Rouge grinned and stood. "Thanks for the fight. I needed a workout," she said. Then she spread her wings and turned to fly away. "Oh, and one more thing. I'd never steal that emerald in a million years. It still stinks like echidnas". With that, Rouge flew away, leaving Knuckles wondering: _do I really smell _that _bad?_

-----

"Are you done yet?" Vector asked.

"No," Espio responded. Vector tapped his foot on the floor impatiently. They were in the central control room of the Egg Fortress, and to Vector, it seemed at least ten times the size of the cramped apartment that the Chaotix lived in. Espio and Vector had snuck in with a little help from the Babylon Rogues creating a diversion, and at the moment Espio was busy trying to hack into Eggmans computer mainframe.

"Are you done yet?" Vector repeated.

"No! It takes a long time so stop asking!" Espio snapped. Vector frowned.

"Hey, don't get upset! I was just asking-"

"_Yes!_ I know you were asking, because you've asked a _million times_ already!" Espio screeched. Vector blinked, surprised. Espio always talked in quite a low voice, and his sudden outburst caught Vector completely off guard. "And another thing– who signs me up for these kind of things, anyway? It's always me that has to hack into computers, and you should know by now that I suck at it!" Espio ranted on. Now Vector was mad. He had always went out of his way to avoid arguing with his team, but this was one argument that was unavoidable.

"If you practiced at it like I tell you, it wouldn't be so hard!" Vector said. Espio got up from the chair he was sitting in.

"Practice? _Practice? _I can't just go around hacking into people's computers, it's against the law!" Espio shouted. When Espio became angry, the chameleon often involuntarily changed colors to blend in with the surroundings, and by that time Espio was so angry that Vector could barely see him. Unfortunately for Vector and Espio, their shouting had attracted an Egg Sentry robot.

"Freeze!" it commanded from the doorway of the control room. Espio turned to the robot and instantly changed back to his usual purple color when he saw the robot's gun. Espio and Vector exchanged nervous glances and then slowly raised their hands in the air. The sentry robot reached for the alarm on the wall, when suddenly something blue flashed out from the hallway and knocked the robot's head off. The sentry crumpled to the floor to reveal Sonic, Tails, and Charmy.

"Oohh, that was soooo cool!" Charmy squealed. "It was like 'I'm gonna pull the alarm', and then you were like, 'wham!' and knocked it's head off!"

"Hey Charmy! Glad you could find us again!" Vector laughed as Charmy buzzed over to them. Vector looked up at Sonic and grinned, showing both rows of his sharp crocodile teeth. "Thanks, Sonic! I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't come along".

"Happy to help," Sonic said, grinning. "What are you guys doing in here?"

"I was trying to hack into Eggman's mainframe, but it's a lot harder than it seems at first," Espio said, turning back to the giant computer he had been working at. "Why are you here?"

"We were trying to find the main power generator, but we got lost. This place is so big, it's unreal!" Sonic said.

"Why are you trying to hack the computer?" Tails asked, walking up to the keyboard. He ran his hands over the keys, inspecting each of them closely. The symbols and letters were different from the ones on a usual computer keyboard.

"Well, we thought we might be able to deactivate all of Eggman's robots if we were able to get into his mainframe, but I haven't been able to-"

Tails' hands flew over the keyboard before Espio could finish talking. "I think I got it," Tails said.

"But- but how did you- I couldn't even-" Espio sputtered as two words flashed on the computer screen: ACCESS GRANTED.

"That's something you'll come to find about my little brother. He's a real fast learner," Sonic said, beaming at Tails. Tails smiled.

"Wow. Thanks," Vector said, looking down at the eight year old fox that was barely knee high to him.

"Hey, do you think you could deactivate Eggman's entire fleet through this?" Sonic asked curiously.

"Probably," Tails said. He tapped in symbols and numbers on the keyboard. "I have to override the firewall that's keeping me from shutting down the engine though, and it won't be easy," he added. Although Tails said so, it took only a few minuted for him to get past the computer security system. "Got it! First thing's first- shut down the robots. Tails tapped in a string of numbers and then pressed 'enter'.

Charmy blinked. "Is that it?" he asked. Nothing seemed to be happening to them, but on Angel Island, all of the Egg Pawns and Egg Fighters suddenly froze where they were. The next thing to stop was the Egg Fleet. The Fleets ships began to drop from the sky like flies, and in a matter of minutes, the only thing left in the sky was the Egg Fortress. On the bridge of the Egg Fortress, an utterly baffled Ivo Robotnik was scrambling to reactivate his mechs, but to no avail.

"Now, should I shut down the engine, or feed it so much fuel that it blows up?" Tails asked.

Sonic grinned. "I'd like to see something blow up, but what about Eggman? Wouldn't it kill him?" he asked. As much as he despised Doctor Robotnik, Sonic also had no desire to see the evil scientist dead.

"He'll just fly away in his Egg Pod, right? He's probably doing that right now. The GUN jets will catch him though," Vector said.

"I guess you're right. Okay then. Blow it Tails!" Sonic said. "We'll need to get out of here quickly though".

"I think there was an emergency exit nearby that we could use," Espio said. Tails grinned and pressed another key.

"We don't have much time, so let's get moving!" Tails said. The gang hurried for the exit just as a low _rumble_ ran through the hallways.

-----

It was as Tails predicted. The overflowing fuel in the engine caught fire and exploded, sending massive shockwaves throughout the Egg Fortress. By the time Tails and Charmy were flying their fighters towards Angel Island with Sonic in the _Tornado's_ back seat and Vector and Espio clinging for dear live onto the wings of Charmy's fighter, The Egg Fortress was half demolished.

On the bridge, Eggman scrambled inside his Egg Pod and fastened the seatbelt that was designed to fit around his round body. He snarled curses as smoke began to pour into the bridge. He hadn't expected to lose this battle. In fact, he hadn't expected _any _battle at all, but Sonic had been waiting for him.

The little fool didn't even know that by stealing the Master Emerald, he would be performing Sonic and his friends a great service in the near future. Eggman, unlike Sonic, saw what was coming. He had built a machine to harness the power of the Master Emerald. A machine that could save them all. Now that machine would be destroyed along with Eggman's fleet, and Robotnik most likely wouldn't have time to build it again- before he attacked. Eggman punched the eject button, but nothing happened. The Egg Pod didn't move. Alarmed, Eggman pressed it again, but still, nothing happened. It was at that moment that Eggman realized that whatever had shut down his robots had also shut down his Egg Pod. Eggman screamed and struggled to unbuckle the seatbelt, but it was jammed. There was a loud explosion, a burst of white hot flames, and then Eggman died.

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**Author's Note:** So what do you think? good? bad? ugly? Well this is my first Sonic fan fic (my second in total), so don't flame me too bad if you didn't like it. I would appreciate it greatly if you would review. Constructive critisicm is always welcome, and remember, me writing stories is made possible by readers like you! thank you!


	2. Victory At A Cost

Everyone on Angel Island cheered as the Egg Fortress exploded. Pieces of red hot metal and sparking wires peppered the island, but no one was hit by any of the shrapnel, as if the Master Emerald were protecting the people that had defended it. No sooner did the _Tornado_ skid to a halt near the shrine of the Master Emerald did Sonic leap from the fighter's back seat.

"Whoo-hoo! We did it! Wait- where'd Knucklehead go off to now? I thought he'd be here," Sonic said, looking around for any sign of the scarlet echidna.

"He said that he was at the forest command post if you were looking for him," a GUN soldier said.

"Oh, thanks!" Sonic grinned. Tails buckled himself back into the cockpit of the _Tornado_ and turned to Sonic.

"Come on Sonic, I can fly us both- wait... hey! Sonic!" Tails shouted, but it was too late. Sonic had already taken off across the floating island, leaving a long trail of dust in his wake.

Sonic stopped smiling after a few minutes of running. _Ow, _he thought as he skidded to a halt. Sonic looked down at his shoes and noticed that their soles were gone, and the bottoms of his feet had numerous cuts and scrapes on them from running across sharp stones. Sonic grimaced as he sat down and removed his sneakers. His feet were swollen to the size of balloons, and Sonic doubted that he would be able to put his shoes back on without going through extreme pain. Not for awhile, at least. Sonic shielded his eyes with one had as the _Tornado_ landed next to him, it's propeller blowing bits of minced vegetation and dust in all directions.

"Are you alright? You usually don't stop running for- well- anything," Tails said from the cockpit.

Sonic flinched as he stood. He smiled sheepishly at Tails. "Is that back seat taken?" he asked. Tails grinned.

"Hop in".

-----

"Lu-cy, we're ho-ome!" Sonic called in a singsong voice as he entered the GUN command post. His grin didn't fade when he saw gloomy expressions of Knuckles, Rouge, the Chaotix, Shadow, and the Babylon Rogues. "Why the long faces guys? We won!" Sonic laughed, plopping himself down on a couch next to Shadow, who was battered beyond belief.

Sonic looked around at the company, and suddenly his grin did fade. "Hey, where's Jet?" Sonic asked.

"Dead," Wave snapped. "Why should you care, hedgehog? You just always wanted to prove that you were faster than him anyway!"

Sonic gaped at the Rogues in horror. He was too shocked to protest against Wave's statement. "I- but- he..." Sonic looked from Wave to Storm, who was blubbering uncontrollably. "How did it happen?" Sonic asked.

"He p-p-puh-pushed muh-me out uh-uh-of the w-ah-hah-ay of t-t-t-this thu-thing," Storm spluttered.

Sonic blinked. "What thing?" he asked.

"I duh-duh- didn't suh-see too g-g-g-good, but it l-l-luh-looked like a heh- a-a-a-" Storm continued his stream of "a's" until Wave stopped him.

"He said it was an orange hedgehog," Wave said quietly. Everyone was silent for a long time, when Rouge spoke up.

"We lost Omega too. Eggman's robots got him," she whispered. When she said this, Sonic saw Shadow twitch.

"What happened, Shadow?" Sonic asked. Shadow looked Sonic squarely in the eye, but said nothing. It was at that moment that Sonic realized just how badly Shadow was hurt. His left arm was broken and in a sling, one of his eyes was swollen halfway shut, and his nose appeared to be broken as well. On top of that, one of the black hedgehog's ears was missing.

"I found him after Rouge dropped me so I could go help him. He was already dead," Shadow said quietly. He would say no more, but Sonic expected that Shadow had defended Omega's remains with all of his strength until the Egg Pawns were deactivated.

Sonic suddenly found the floor very interesting. He was embarrassed by his entrance now. He had expected the battle to go as all of Eggman's attacks to go- Eggman would attempt to steal something of value to them, and they would drive him off with no harm done. Instead, Eggman had poured all of his strength into seizing the Master Emerald. It was almost as though he was _desperate _for something- for something other than power. Everyone jumped as they heard a loud _snap-hiss_ come from the other side of the room.

Tails was standing by a small refrigerator in the corner , and had popped the tab on a can of Dr. Pepper. "Sorry," he said, smiling apologetically.

"Jeez, I thought one of Eggman's robots was about to run in here! Don't do that again!" Knuckles grunted through an ice pack he had placed over his mouth.

"What happened to you?" Vector asked Knuckles. Knuckles turned and noticed the Chaotix for the first time, as they had been standing (flying, in Charmy's case) in the corner of the room the whole time.

"Well, _someone_ here kicked me in the face. The doctors said that my jaw's broken," Knuckles mumbled, glaring at Rouge, who pretended that she didn't notice he was eyeing her.

Sonic looked from Rouge to Knuckles, then back to Rouge. "_No_," he said, a grin beginning to form on his face. "No way! _You_ did that?" Sonic laughed at Rouge.

"He started it," Rouge muttered. Sonic laughed and strode over to Knuckles.

"How is it? Can I see?" Sonic asked. Knuckles glowered at the blue hedgehog and slowly shook his head. "Aw, c'mon, Knux! Show us how bad it is! We all want to see you know," Sonic chuckled.

Knuckles sighed and relinquished, taking the ice pack away from his face. One side of his chin was swollen into a lump of short hairs and flesh. Sonic grinned and patted Knuckles on the swollen side of his face. "You look beautiful, Knucklehead. I bet you could sign up to be a model". Knuckles growled and shoved Sonic's hand away.

"Bite me," he muttered, putting the ice pack over his face once again.

Wave toed the end of her _Type-W_ Extreme Gear, which was battered and broken from the battle. "What about the orange hedgehog? The one that killed Jet," she said.

"I don't know, what about him?" Sonic asked. Wave scowled at him.

"Do you know him, or why he's here?" Wave asked. Sonic shook his head.

"Maybe Eggman hired him, or maybe he was one of Eggman's robots. He's always making robot versions of me, or hiring Sonic copycats. No offense Shadow," Sonic said, seeing Shadow scowl at him. Wave shook her head.

"No, this one wasn't a robot, and he didn't look like you. I mean- he did, only he wasn't blue, he was orange," she said. Sonic frowned.

"Was he wearing anything? Like shoes, or jeans, or a coat?" Sonic asked. Storm nodded.

"H-huh-he had on nuh-knee and eh-eh-elb-b-bow p-p-p-pads, like humans w-wear whuh-when they r-ride sk-ska-skateb-b-b-boards," Storm said. "And shuh-shin and wr-wri-ist g-guards, and shoes like your's".

"Well, whoever he is, he must skate a lot," Sonic joked. No one laughed.

"It was fast. Not as fast as you, but really fast at any rate," Wave said quietly.

Sonic frowned. "How... did Jet die?" he asked slowly, not wanting to upset Storm more. Wave and Storm glanced at each other.

"Well... we really don't know how," Wave admitted. "We didn't really find his body".

"How do you know he's dead then?" Tails asked.

Sonic frowned. "Yeah, what's up with freaking us out by saying Jet's dead, and then saying you didn't find a body?"

"They f-f-f-f-f-fell!" Storm cried. "They f-fell off of th-thuh-the island!"

Wave looked sadly at her stuttering companion. "Storm flew down to catch him, but they were gone," she said.

"Chaos Control..." Shadow murmured.

Sonic frowned. "I don't think Jet could use Chaos Control, Shadow," he said. Shadow scowled at Sonic.

"Not Jet, you idiot. I'm talking about the other hedgehog!" Shadow snapped. Sonic decided not to argue with Shadow, as he was apparently in a bad mood. Sonic couldn't blame him though. If Sonic lost one of his ears, he would have quite a short fuse, to say the least.

"It couldn't have used Chaos Control if he didn't have a Chaos Emerald, though," Rouge objected.

"You don't need one. I can use a weak version of it if I don't have an emerald," Shadow objected.

"Well, then you're probably the _only_ one who can do that," Wave grumbled.

"Hey, who said that he didn't have a Chaos Emerald?" Tails asked.

Everyone stopped talking and looked at the young fox. "I mean," Tails continued, "none of us really know where any of the emeralds are, so it's possible that hedgehog had one!"

"Wait, what if he didn't use Chaos Control? Who even thought of that?" Knuckles asked.

"_I_ did! Weren't you listening to a thing I was saying, Knucklehead?" Shadow cried.

_Uh oh, _Sonic thought. Soon, Shadow and Knuckles were arguing, with Shadow spewing curse words at both Knuckles and anyone who tried to stop the argument.

Storm began to wail again, tears streaming down the albatross's beak. Wave tried to comfort him while both Tails and Rouge joined the argument between Knuckles and Shadow, Tails siding with Knuckles and Rouge siding with her hedgehog companion. Charmy buzzed forward, shrieking at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason, and Espio began to argue again with Vector about computer hacking. In a matter of seconds, the room was plunged into total chaos, with Sonic sitting right in the middle of it all. Sonic flinched as he heard Rouge yell at Tails harshly.

"What do you know, you two-tailed freak?" Rouge shouted. Sonic's jaw dropped as he looked up at Rouge. Tears were beginning to well in Tails' eyes when Sonic shot up from where he was sitting.

"Don't talk to him like that! He's eight years old and he's smarter than any of us!" Sonic cried.

"And _you!_" Wave shouted, rising suddenly and pointing an accusing finger at Sonic. "Jet dies and you strut in here smiling and laughing like a moron!"

Everyone was silenced as there came a loud _BANG_ from outside the room.

"I don't care what kind of 'clearance' I need! My boyfriend's in here and I bet he misses me just as much as I miss him!" a feminine voice shouted.

"Oh, no. Amy," Sonic groaned. There was another _bang _and they all heard footsteps approaching the room. "Oh, crap. Close the door! Quick!" Sonic hissed. Shadow strode forward and shut the door. He was about to lock it when it swung open, hitting him in his already broken nose. Shadow roared with pain and Amy jumped from where she was standing in the doorway.

"Oh! Sorry Shadow, I didn't see you, there!"Amy said, smiling apologetically, but briefly.

Shadow gave Amy an unpleasant look and sat back down.

Amy scanned the room quickly for any sign of Sonic, who was hiding behind Storm's bulk. Then, as if because of some sixth sense Amy grinned and pushed Storm out of the way. Sonic's face turned white under the blue fur that covered it. "Are you trying to hide from me, Sonic?" Amy asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Um... well..." Sonic was about to say 'yes' as a joke when he noticed the look on Amy's face. "No," Sonic said, swallowing nervously. Amy grinned and hugged Sonic so tight that he could barely breathe. Charmy made a small retching noise and Vector snickered quietly.

Amy shot him a murderous glare. "What are you laughing at?" she asked. Vector blinked.

"Me? Uh, nothing," he said.

"Did everyone see what happened to Eggman's ship? Did you see that? It was so cool!" Amy laughed, releasing Sonic from her death grip.

Sonic sucked in a deep breath once Amy let him go. "Yeah, Tails did it," he said. Amy turned to Tails, her eyes shining with admiration.

"Really? You did that? How?" she asked.

"Oh, uh... it was no big deal really," Tails said in an embarrassed tone. Everyone in the room seemed to relax and put the argument behind them. Rouge apologized to Tails for calling him a two-tailed freak. "So, did GUN catch Eggman?" Tails asked Amy.

Amy shook her head. "No," she said flatly.

Tails sighed sadly. "Oh, he got away then. I thought GUN would catch him. I'm not surprised though".

"No, GUN doesn't know what happened to him. They didn't see any escape pods leave the ship. I think he must have found a way off before it blew, though," Amy said.

Tails blinked. "He would have used the Egg Pod..." suddenly realization hit Tails like a boxing glove with a brick in it. "Oh," he groaned. "Oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no," he repeated over and over. Sonic frowned.

"What's wrong, Tails?" he asked his friend. Tails put his soda down and buried his face in his hands.

"I shut down the Egg Pod on accident. I killed him," Tails groaned. Everyone's eyes widened.

"You couldn't have-" Sonic began.

"I did. When I shut down the robots, I accidentally deactivated the Egg Pod. He must have been on the ship when it exploded," Tails said, his voice shaking now. Suddenly he broke down crying.

Amy looked at Tails sadly and put her arms around him, trying to comfort the young fox. "It's okay. You didn't know it would happen like that," she said.

Shadow looked confused. "Why are you crying?" he asked. Sonic gave Shadow a dark look. He knew that Shadow was a killer. A _murderer_. He didn't understand what it must be like for Tails.

"He never meant for him to die, and he's never killed anyone, unlike you," Sonic said. Shadow just shrugged and patted Tails on the shoulder.

"Don't worry kit. The first time's always the toughest. It gets easier the more you do it," he said.

"I'm never going to kill anyone again," Tails said, wiping his eyes.

"It's alright," Sonic said, putting his hand on Tails' shoulder. He tried to say more, but no other words that came to his mind. None.

-----

In the vast blackness of space, there was no sound. There was no light, save for the tiny specks that were the stars. In the distance, Earth glowed like a blue marble that could fit in a toddler's palm, it's white clouds swirling slowly across it's surface. A small GUN prototype droid was hurtling through space, mindlessly moving further into the bleak vacuum ahead. It didn't stray from it's course. Even if meteorites were to come from nowhere and begin to bombard it, it would continue to move forward. It's purpose was to fly forward. Outward. Into space, where no human had ever gone before. It was programmed to do so over sixty years ago, by professor Gerald Robotnik, aboard the Space Colony ARK. It endlessly transmitted video recordings to an abandoned GUN base, where no one would see them. It had flied endlessly for fifty-eight years, and still flew on. Where it's remains are now, I do not know, but what I do know is that while Ivo Robotnik's flesh burned aboard the exploding Egg Fortress, it encountered something more deadly than anything the world had ever faced before, be it plague or war or terrorism. A thick grey smoke moved swiftly and silently towards the droid, not floating forward, but oozing, as though like some sort of liquid. The GUN droid halted, it's optical scanners sensing something in front of it. It tried with all of it's robot might to register the thing that was approaching, but it did not have this object recorded in it's memory. It's sensors indicated that there was intense heat coming from deep within the cloud, but the source of the heat was a mystery. The cloud moved forward quicker now, sensing something to devour ahead. The droid quailed, then turned and began to hurtle away. It was too slow. The cloud swallowed the droid up the way a child would devour a maraschino cherry. If anyone were to look at the GUN droids final transmission, they would see over twenty-million blobs of blue liquid shoot from the guts of the cloud like bullets from a thousand machine guns, all heading towards earth.

-----

"So, what do we do now?" Knuckles asked Sonic. Sonic shrugged.

"I guess things go back to normal now, only for good. No more Eggman, no more adventures. That's it," Sonic said. They were standing by the shrine of the Master Emerald in the aftermath of the battle.

Knuckles sighed. "It's going to be weird without having to worry about Eggman every ten minutes," he said. Sonic smiled wryly.

"Yeah, I know. At least I can get back to running," Sonic said. Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Why do you do that? You never stay in one place for more than two minutes. Doesn't it bother you that you don't really..." Knuckles tried to search for words that wouldn't offend Sonic. "...have much of a purpose except to run?" he finished. To Knuckles' surprise, Sonic laughed.

"Doesn't bother me one bit, Knucklehead. In fact, I like knowing that," Sonic said.

Knuckles blinked, baffled. "Why?" he asked Sonic. The blue hedgehog sighed and grinned again.

"I don't like being tied down to anything, that's all. I don't like thinking that I _need_ to do anything. Actually in truth, no one needs to do anything, they want to do something. I mean, you could very well have let Eggman take the Master Emerald, and then you would never have to worry about it again, But you _wanted _to defend it. If a guy gets shot, he doesn't _need_ to bring himself to a hospital, he could very well curl up in a corner and die. He wants to live though, so he _wants_ to get to a hospital. If a huge missile is coming towards earth, I wouldn't have to stop it, but I'd want to, because I don't want to die".

Knuckles stared at Sonic in amazement. He had never thought of anything that way. He had always thought that since he was the last of his tribe, it was his sworn duty to protect it. He thought it was something he needed to do, but now he realized that he wasn't really bound to it in any way. He wanted to protect it to honor his ancestors. Sonic shrugged.

"But, hey. That's just how I see things," he said. Knuckles frowned and looked at the Master Emerald.

"Why was he trying to steal it?" he asked himself aloud. Sonic shrugged.

"Oh, you know Eggman. Just another scheme to take over the world, I bet," he said as he walked away. Sonic stopped and peered over the edge of Angel Island. He blinked and staggered away from the ledge, dazed with vertigo. "Jeez, how can you stand _living_ up here Knux?" Sonic asked his friend.

-----

Somewhere not too far off in the Pacific Ocean, a Portugese fisherman named Kimo was reeling in the fishing net that he was dragging along the ocean floor. He was having a good day so far. He could probably make a lot of money from selling these fish to local markets. He sighed and sat down in his small fishing boat. It was quite cloudy that day, and Kimo hoped that a storm wouldn't come. The weather forecast on the news had said that it would be sunny, but suddenly grey clouds came from nowhere and began swirling across the sky. Kimo shrugged and finished reeling in the fishing net. "I'll go back in a few hours," he muttered to himself.

To his utter disappointment, there were no fish caught in the net. Kimo was about to lower it again when he noticed something glittering in the net. "What in world?" he whispered. He untangled the net and gasped. Laying in a clump of seaweed and mud was a jewel unlike anything Kimo had ever seen before. It was a deep violet color, and seemed to glow from it's center. When Kimo touched the Chaos Emerald, it was warm. Immediately a feeling of bliss washed over him, similar to the feeling of being inside a warm house wrapped in thick blankets while snow pattered against your window. When he had first seen the gem, his thoughts were to sell it, but now that he touched it, he wanted to keep it forever.

"I'll take that, if you don't mind," a cool, level voice spoke in Portugese behind Kimo. Kimo turned in surprise to see an orange hedgehog standing behind him. Kimo's eyes widened. "Sonic The Hedgehog?" he asked. He had heard stories of the American hedgehog and his heroic acts before and had always found them unbelievable, but now that he saw the hedgehog, he realized that they must be true. This hedgehog was much bigger than normal ones, standing about a hundred and six centimeters tall. Kimo frowned. This couldn't be Sonic The Hedgehog though, as he had heard that Sonic was cobalt blue. The only thing blue on the orange hedgehog was it's boots. This hedgehog was also wearing knee and elbow pads, as well as shin guards and wrist gauntlets. All of these were the same violet color as the Chaos Emerald in Kimo's hands. The hedgehog held out his hand.

"I said I would like to have that, if you please. Are you deaf? Am I not speaking clearly? Are you just plain stupid?" the hedgehog snarled. Alarmed, Kimo slowly and hesitantly handed the jewel over to the orange hedgehog, who smiled icily. "Thank you. My master shall be here to take care of you momentarily," the hedgehog said again in Portugese. Then he raised the purple Chaos Emerald over his head and shouted two words in English that Kimo could not understand,

"_Chaos Control!_" the hedgehog roared. Kimo cried out in alarm as a bright flash enveloped them both. Kimo covered his eyes, but the light had already faded. When Kimo opened his eyes, the hedgehog was gone, and the dark clouds overhead were now completely covering the sun, like a dark blanket would cover a light bulb. In his fear, Kimo turned his fishing boat around and began to head towards shore. Suddenly thunder split through the quiet air and rain began to pour from the clouds in buckets. Kimo looked around wildly.

"Oh, no," he whispered. The small boat was slowly but surely filling with rainwater. He quickly picked up a small bucket in the corner of the boat and began to scoop the water from the boat, tossing it into the ocean. Suddenly, something much larger than a raindrop landed in the fishing boat. Kimo turned around to see a large blob of blue liquid floating in the boat. It wasn't water. It seemed somehow more solid than water, like blue Jell-O. Slowly it began to ooze towards him, rising, taking shape as it moved. Two glowing green eyes appeared, then a head, then a body and arms, then a tail, and below it, legs. Behind the eyes, floating in the liquid, was a large lump of grey flesh- a brain. Two more of the blobs landed in the boat and morphed into the same creature, and the boat began to sink into the water. The three Chaos Zeros made small gurgling noises to each other and reached for Kimo. Thunder rolled through the air, concealing Kimo's scream in a curtain of sound.

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**Author's Note: **I'd like to thank Zelda the Twilight Knight and an anonymous reviewer whose name was labled as "ri2' for reviewing. If you liked it and want to read more, _please_ review, as I would really apreciate it. It would also motivate me to finish the other chapters faster :)


	3. Apollo the Hedgehog

_Jet was falling, still grappling with the orange hedgehog who had knocked him from his Extreme Gear. He tried to push the hedgehog away, but it held onto him with a vice-like grip. Jet flinched as they fell past one of Eggman's ships engines, the intense heat and deafening roar threatening to overwhelm him. He pulled back his fist and punched the hedgehog in the nose, sending them spiraling away from each other as they fell. Jet could faintly see Angel Island above them, shrinking in size as they fell. GUN fighters and Egg Pawns rained from the skies, toppling over the edge of Angel Island or being shot down from the air. It was at that moment that Jet gave up hope. They were going to fall to their deaths here, he knew it. When he had lost his Extreme Gear he had believed that perhaps Storm or Wave would fly down to catch him, but it soon became apparent that they weren't. _

_Suddenly something grabbed the hawk's arm and pulled at him. Jet looked over to the side to see the other hedgehog. It had a bloody nose and murder in it's eyes, and it was pulling them closer together. Jet let his enemy pull him closer, then kneed him in the groin. The hedgehog snarled, grabbed Jet's arm, and sank it's teeth into his shoulder. Jet cried out in pain and wrenched his arm away from his opponent. They continued to fall, punching and kicking each other on the way down, until they landed on the slick, slanted hull of one of the ships in Eggman's fleet. Jet supposed that the impact should have killed them both, but it didn't. The hedgehog rolled over one shoulder onto a knee with unnatural grace, while Jet hit the hard surface with a loud _Bang_. Jet was able to somewhat break his fall though– at the expense of the bones in his right arm. The blinding pain in Jet's arm was the only thing keeping him conscious. He groaned as the hedgehog's head appeared in his sight. It grinned, saying nothing._

"_Why are you doing this?" Jet moaned. The hedgehog's silence taunted him. It reached for Jet, when suddenly a violent explosion shook both of them off of the ship's hull. They toppled off of the ship, their limbs flailing in the air as if they were a couple of rag dolls. Jet's eyes widened as he saw the ground rushing up to meet him. He closed his eyes, expecting a surge of pain before the end when his body broke against the rocks below, shattering his bones to pieces, but instead he stopped falling, hovered in the air for a moment, and then fell face first into soft sand. Jet groaned and rolled onto his back to see a clear blue sky above him, much different than the smoke-filled sky around Angel Island. Where in the world was he? Jet was slowly getting to his feet when he heard soft footsteps behind him. He slowly turned around, as his right side hurt too much to whirl around. The orange hedgehog was approaching Jet, grinning and tossing the yellow Chaos Emerald from hand to hand._

"_Surprising, to say the least. I greatly expected that fall to kill you... perhaps you can help me more than I thought at first," the hedgehog said. Jet's eyes were glued to the emerald in the hedgehog's hands. He realized now what had happened- the hedgehog must have used Chaos Control to warp them away and slow their fall- they were in a desert._

"_I wouldn't help you if my life depended on it," Jet tried to snarl, but all that came was a pitiful moan. The hedgehog's ice-blue eyes connected with Jet's and he grinned._

"_I think it does, Jet The Hawk," he said icily. Jet blinked._

"_How do you know my name? Who are you?" he asked._

"_I know much about you, Jet. I know about your friends too. As for my name, it's Apollo. Apollo The Hedgehog," Apollo said. Jet stared at Apollo for a moment and then, as much as it hurt, he began to chuckle. Apollo raised his eyebrows. "Do you find my name funny?" he asked._

"_No," Jet laughed. "It's just that all you hedgehogs look the same to me". Apollo's expression did not change, but Jet saw a flicker of anger in his eyes._

"_Indeed," he hissed through his teeth. It was more of a statement than a question. Sensing a malicious intent from Apollo as he stepped towards Jet, the hawk swept the ground with his leg, tripping Apollo. The orange hedgehog snarled with fury and leapt to his feet before Jet had the time to pick himself up off of the ground. Jet ducked as Apollo swung a kick at his head, but the hedgehog had been expecting it, bringing his knee up to meet Jet's beak. Jet cried out with pain and staggered backwards, feeling blood begin to pour into his mouth. Apollo pressed his attack, raining blow after blow upon Jet, who made few feeble attempts to protect himself. When Apollo landed one last punch on the hawk's broken arm, Jet thought he was going to faint from the sheer pain, but as suddenly as he had begun, Apollo stopped attacking._

_Jet fell backwards and rolled down the side of the tall sand dune they had been fighting on. Apollo followed him, outwardly as calm as ever._

"_Don't be afraid, I'm not going to kill you. My master has need of the power within you. I believe you will make a fine soldier," Apollo said._

_Jet blinked. "What are you talking about? What power do _I _have?" he asked through the blood in his mouth. Apollo grinned._

"_You'll see," he said. Jet was too weak to defend himself as Apollo seized him by the back of the neck and lifted him to his feet with terrifying strength. Apollo held the Chaos Emerald aloft and a bright flash of white light enveloped them both._

_-----_

_Jet was standing on a carpet of stars. He looked around frantically, wondering where he was, when it hit him. Behind was a large blue orb; Earth, and all around him was blackness, broken only by the tiny dots of stars. He was in space, and it wasn't what he had expected at all. He found that it wasn't much different than Earth, really. It was just a little harder to breathe, and it was cold, so cold that Jet nearly passed out from the sudden change of temperature. Apollo, however, merely smiled._

"_It's nice and quiet out here, I like that. Much different than your home world, isn't it?" he asked. Jet realized that his only choice was to agree, and his knees buckled from the sheer strength it took to nod. Apollo smiled coldly and stepped forward. Jet swayed for a moment, unsure if he would be able to walk in space like that, but then staggered forward. His feet seemed to connect with some sort of surface, although he could not see it. "You have no idea how I long to return to my own planet, Jet. No idea. It was much different than you're planet. Do you know what I mean by different? I mean _better_. My planet was much better than yours," Apollo said. He looked at Jet and the icy smile faded. "There were no humans on my planet. There was no GUN or fat scientist imbeciles, like the one you were battling against". Apollo paused and then smiled. "Well, yes, there was one, but he disappeared some time ago. We called him Eggman-Nega. He was no different from the scientist in your world- he was stupid and too careless to look over his mistakes. He would make millions of one type of weak robot, or only one type of extremely strong robot, and she would always drive him off". Apollo's eyes flashed with hatred as he said the word "she". _

_Jet was curious, and he gathered up all of the strength that he wasn't using to walk and said,_ _"who's 'she'?"_

_Apollo glanced at Jet, and then practically spat the name. "Blaze the Cat," he snarled._

_Too weak to ask who that was, Jet merely staggered onward, not knowing where or why Apollo was taking him. "Queen Blaze The Cat," Apollo scoffed. "Leader of my world and of all who opposed Eggman-Nega"._

_Jet suddenly remembered Sonic telling him about a cat once. He wasn't sure if he had said that her name was Blaze, but he did mention something about fire. _"She's one tough customer. If I had to give you any advice, it'd be to never get on her bad side," _Sonic had said._

_Suddenly Apollo turned to Jet and smiled with that, thin, cold smirk once more. "Well, we are here. Goodbye, Jet the Hawk"._

_Before Jet knew what was happening he began to fall, as though the invisible walkway had just slipped away underneath him. Jet landed softly on a large cloud of grey smoke. Inside the cloud, he could hear a low rumbling noise, as though there was some sort of factory inside the cloud. He looked up and saw Apollo floating above him, but he seemed to be getting further away. No, he wasn't floating away, Jet was sinking into the cloud. The hawk desperately clawed at the cloud with his unbroken arm, but to no avail. Jet was soon swallowed up by grey mist. He began to fall again, then landed harshly on a surface that wasn't solid, liquid, or gas. Jet groaned in anguish. It was incredibly hot inside the cloud, and through his closed eyelids, he could see bright flashes of light, as though lightning was flashing in the sky. _

_Jet opened his eyes slowly and staggered to his feet to observe his surroundings. He had presumed correct; the bright flashes _were_ lightning, but not in the sky. Bright bolts of blinding white light were tearing through the empty area he was in, all of them missing Jet by mere meters. Jet looked around to see that he was in a large interior space and seemed to be standing in mid-air, inches from swirling grey mists below him. The low rumbling noise had grown to a deafening roar by now, and the room seemed to grow hotter with every bolt of lightning that slashed through the cloud. If it was a cloud. Jet had never heard of it being this hot inside a cloud. As a matter of fact, he had never heard of a cloud being in _space_ either. Jesus, it was hot. Jet wiped sweat away from his forehead and began to pant heavily. _Even my _sweat_ is hot_, Jet thought, looking down at the hand he had wiped his forehead with. Jet frowned. Was sweat _green_? He wiped his forehead again and blinked in wonder_.

_Instead of water on his glove, there was a thin film of green goo- the same shade of green as his feathers. Jet began to panic when he found that he couldn't relax his facial expression. His brow seemed to be fixed into a permanent frown, and even by attempting to raise his eyebrows, Jet couldn't get it back to normal. Jet realized what was happening when he felt his fingers begin to lose their shape and become soft. He was melting. At that instant the heat seemed to become so unbearable that Jet couldn't breathe. His arm went slack and began to drip down onto the floor as a medley of colors– melted green feathers and the white cloth of his gloves mixed with the melted red material of Jet's boots. The drops swirled and began to change color as the numerous puddles of Jet's half-melted body oozed together. Jet finally felt his spine melt away, and he collapsed to the floor as a pile of bubbling green goop. _

_Almost immediately the heat ceased, but the flashes of lighting continued, now striking the puddle that had moments before been Jet The Hawk. Slowly, the puddle changed from murky, swamp green to a clear lime color, appearing tho be a thin layer of green ice floating above the dark clouds. Then the puddle bubbled, and a pair of eyes appeared on the surface of the puddle. The liquid slowly began to rise and take shape- into Chaos Zero._

_Apollo stared at the cloud with a blank expression on his face. He almost expected to see Jet claw his way back to the surface, but he didn't. Apollo hadn't doubted that he would, though. Jet's soul was strong, and his will to live was even stronger, Apollo had sensed that from the moment he saw Jet. It was an uncommon trait to be found in creatures. Apollo found that if many beings knew that their end was at hand, they would give up and plead for it to be quick and painless. People such as Jet, though, would fight to their very last, always hoping to win the fight. But they wouldn't win. No one, not even Apollo, could win a fight like that. Death was inevitable, wasn't it? If you survived an ordeal, you would still die sooner or later. _

_Jet's spirit would sustain Apollo's master for quite some time, or at least longer than the humans that had been absorbed by Apollo's master. Apollo's thoughts were interrupted by a low gurgling noise below him. Apollo looked down and smiled in victory at the sight of the Chaos Zero that Jet had morphed into. _

_Apollo raised his eyebrows in surprise. This was different. Usually, the clones looked exactly like the original, but this one's color scheme seemed to be reversed. It had clear, icy blue eyes instead of green eyes, and instead of being turquoise blue, it's body had the same green hue that it's eyes should have been. Apollo raised an eyebrow in a curious look as he noticed something else. Mast of the Chaos Clones just had brains, but this Chaos Jet had something else. He had a heart, thumping rhythmically in it's chest. Chaos Jet loped up towards Apollo on invisible steps, his liquid body rippling with the motion. When he reached Apollo, the orange hedgehog nodded in the direction of Earth, and Chaos Jet began to float slowly towards the blue orb, his body melting into a large blob of green gel as he gained speed._

_When Chaos Jet was far away, Apollo turned back to the cloud and knelt down on one knee. "Your servant is at your command, my lord Dyamisius," Apollo murmured to the cloud. "I have found a source, and _she_ shall not stop you this time. No one will. I swear it," he said, looking over his shoulder to Earth._

_The cloud, an alien entity known as Dyamisius, rumbled in delight– a sound that would have sounded, to a being living on Earth, eerily similar to thunder._

-----

Wave lay awake on her bed in the Babylon Rogues' apartment. She knew that Storm wasn't asleep either; if he was, Wave would be able to hear him snoring on the bunk below her. Wave shivered. It somehow didn't feel right without hearing the constant creak of boards from the bunk above her when Jet tossed and turned in his sleep. Before, she had always wished that the noise would stop, but now, she wanted to hear it more than ever. Wave found herself straining her ears to try to hear the occasional curse float in from the kitchen when Jet couldn't get the cabinets to open so he could get some cereal. _Those damn cabinets_, he had always called them. _Those damn cabinets are stuck again_, or, _someone needs to fix those damn cabinets_. Wave found herself laughing a little through her sadness. Of course he never wanted to fix them himself.

_Fine, go fix those damn cabinets then_, Wave had chuckled once at breakfast. Jet had begun to splutter indignantly that it wasn't _his_ job to fix them. He was the "racer", he said. He "brought in the green", he said. So he left it to Wave and Storm, who of course didn't do the job either. Now Wave wished that she had fixed those damn cabinets. At least it would have been one more thing to do for Jet. Wave heard Storm begin to weep a little on the lowest bunk, and realized that he must have been thinking the same thing.

Wave rolled over and closed her eyes, wishing for a last time before falling asleep that she would hear Jet yawn and roll over above her.

-----

Sonic slowed to a stop as he entered Westopolis. Man, was he hungry. He hadn't eaten since after Jet's funeral. How long ago was that? How long ago since they lowered the empty coffin into Jet's grave? Sonic sighed sadly and counted on his fingers, _one, two... three days? I haven't eaten in three days? _He thought. Sonic scratched his head, but wrenched his hand back when he accidentally poked himself with a few of his own blue quills. He strode down the street, examining the various restaurants on the street. Unfortunately for Sonic, most of them were the fancy ones where rich people ate at. He heard that they tipped the waiters and waitresses five-hundred bucks at places like those. Maybe he could get a job there... no, no. Sonic knew they'd never allow a hedgehog into those places, let alone have one _work _there. _And who ever heard of a hedgehog that needed a job anyway? _Sonic asked himself. He lived by his own rules, he didn't need a job. He had money anyway. Sonic fished his wallet from the baggy jeans he had just bought and checked how much money he had. Two bucks. _Crap_, he thought angrily.

Sonic looked up just in time to see a small food stand set up at a corner. A food stand– selling chili dogs. Sonic began to slaver uncontrollably as he read the sign:

CHILI DOGS! TWO FOR $2.05!!

Sonic licked his lips and stepped forward, getting in line to get his food. "Next!" the man at the stand called. Sonic stepped forward and drew the wallet from his pocket, not caring that he was drooling all over his brand new shoes. The man looked at the line, confused. "Next!" he called again, louder this time.

"Oh," Sonic said quietly. He was so short that the man didn't see him over the counter, so he hopped up and down so the chili dog vendor could see the tips of his blue spines bouncing into view. The vendor leaned forward and looked down at Sonic, who grinned up at him. "Hi," Sonic said flatly.

"Can I help you?" the vendor asked Sonic. Sonic nodded vigorously.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I buy some chili dogs?" Sonic asked, holding up his entire wallet to the man.

"Um, sure. Do you want the normal size or the foot long?" the man asked, taking Sonic's wallet.

Sonic nearly fainted with joy. "Foot long please," he barely managed to squeak. The vendor checked Sonic's wallet and frowned.

"Sorry, but you've only got two dollars. These cost two dollars and five cents," he said.

Sonic's grin disappeared instantly. "What?" he asked slowly.

"These chili dogs cost five cents more than the amount that you have. I'm sorry, but I can't give anything to you".

Sonic blinked. "Are you serious? Dude, it's only five cents!" he cried. The vendor sighed.

"Sorry, but that five cents from every customer can add up to a lot. Besides, it wouldn't be fair to the other customers who paid more than you," the man said. Sonic's ears drooped. The man had a point, it wouldn't be fair. Sonic sighed and relinquished, taking his wallet back from the vendor.

Without saying a word, the disappointed Sonic turned and began to walk away, shoving his wallet into the pocket of the blue hoody he had recently purchased. His stomach seemed to be keeping count with every step Sonic took, rumbling after every stride. Step- rumble, step- rumble, step- rumble. Sonic strode down the sidewalk, staring at the sidewalk beneath him. _Step on the crack and you'll break your mother's back..._ Sonic thought absent-mindedly as he stepped over the thin line dividing the slabs of cement that made up the pieces of the sidewalk. Suddenly he stopped, realizing that he hadn't even _thought_ those words since he wassix years old._ Man, oh man, I'm delusional. I need something to eat, and fast_, Sonic thought to himself. Suddenly he caught sight of a cute, blonde haired little girl sitting on a bench in a nearby park. She was tossing crackers to pigeons and grinning every time one of the cooing birds plucked one of the crumbs up from the grass.

Sonic was suddenly struck with an idea. _Maybe if I sit in front of her looking sad, she'll give me some of those crackers_, Sonic thought. He knew it was low, perhaps the lowest he had ever gone, but he was a starving hedgehog and had no other choice. Sonic strode forward and sat down cross-legged on the grass, watching the girl crush the crackers and toss them to the birds while at the same time trying to look as miserable as he could. Soon the girl caught sight of Sonic from the corner of her eye and began to stare at him. For a moment Sonic's spirits leaped– but then crashed back down as the girl reacted. Sonic had expected her to say how poor of a hedgehog he was or comment on how hungry he looked, and then offer him food. He was wrong.

The little girl pointed at Sonic and then began to scream at the top of her lungs. Sonic blinked, growing embarrassed as people walking in the park and on the street began to stare at him. The girl continued to scream, her face now turning a deep scarlet color, her eyes beginning to bulge. Sonic slowly stood and began to walk away, blushing a deep red under his quills. People stopped and stared at both Sonic and the girl, perplexed. As soon as Sonic was out of the park, he looked up and down the road to check for oncoming cars, then took off running. He was anxious to get away from the embarrassment.

As soon as Sonic stopped in the next town, he felt his knees become weak. He knew that if he didn't eat soon, he would surely pass out. Sonic was walking down the street, hugging his stomach to keep the gnawing pain of hunger at bay, when he saw a trash can on the side of the street. Nervous, Sonic slowly approached the garbage can and peered inside. Laying inside the garbage on a crumpled newspaper was an apple with a bite taken out of it. Sonic slowly reached for it, then drew his hand back. _I've never done this before... but is this my last resort? Have I turned from a drifter to a bum? _Sonic thought. Perhaps, perhaps not, but right now, food was the only thought on Sonic's mind. After looking around to make sure that no one was looking, Sonic reached in and plucked the apple out of the garbage. Lunch.

-----

It was relatively quiet at the Chaotix Detective Headquarters, which was merely a fancy name that the Chaotix had given the filthy, two room apartment in New York that Vector, Espio, and Charmy lived in. Dirty shirts that had been neglected to be washed were strewn over chairs or blanketing a bed, three of the apartment's light bulbs were broken, and old candy wrappers were strewn about, along with empty McDonald's take-out bags and Charmy's _Superman _comic books. However, despite the mess, the Chaotix called this place home. It had everything they needed after all, like heat, electricity, water, and (much to Espio's relief) two working toilets.

Charmy had sprawled himself out on the couch while the D-Day scene of _Saving Private Ryan _sounded on the television, the sounds of ricocheting bullets and officers shouting making Charmy's antennae twitch in his sleep.

Vector was snoring noisily on his bed. After the Battle Of Angel Island, the first thing the crocodile had done was gone to the apartment and consumed approximately thirteen cans of Bud-Light. After the second day of Vector not waking up, Espio was relieved to find that Vector had begun to snore– a surefire way to tell that his boss was still alive. However, that became quite a problem at night, when Espio was trying to sleep.

For once since they had moved to the apartment, Espio envied Charmy for being able to sleep on the couch. Since Espio and Vector shared a room, Vector's snores had been keeping Espio awake for the last two nights in a row. Tonight Espio was tossing and turning in frustration, the sound effects from the movie Charmy had been watching serving only as another distraction for him. Vector mumbled something and turned over in the bed next to Espio's. The purple chameleon groaned angrily and punched his lumpy pillow into a more comfortable shape. Espio found himself staring at the wall, counting how many stains were on it and attempting to guess what caused them. _Let's see, there's one two, three, four, five, six, seven- wait, that's just a hole in the wall,_ Espio thought.

"Yeah, hmm... uh, we're op'n on Saturduhs. I mean days. Saterduhs... days... duhs," Vector slurred drunkenly in his sleep.

Espio sighed and finally decided that he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep for some time. He stood up, wincing at the ache that had knotted itself deep into his right shoulder.

Scratching his horn, he made his way into the corner of the living room (_slash kitchen, slash dining room_) Espio thought to himself. He opened up the refrigerator and peered inside to see what food the Chaotix had left.

_Let's see... oh, yeah. There's pizza, Chinese food, Chinese food, and pizza_. Espio sighed and opened up one of the carton's of Chinese food. He immediately closed it and tossed it back into the fridge- he didn't want the smell to kill them all. "Probably two months old anyway," Espio muttered. That was when he noticed the bowl of popcorn sitting on Charmy's stomach as he slept.

Espio crept forward quietly, not wanting to wake the six year old bee. He reached out with his hand when he was directly behind the couch, but drew it back as Charmy's breath caught.

"Pretty pony... I want to ride the pretty pony..." Charmy mumbled in his sleep. Espio muttered a curse to himself.

"False alarm, Espio, false alarm," he said quietly before reaching again. However, no sooner had his hand touched the rim of the bowl did Charmy roll over, spilling the contents of the bowl across the bare wood floors of the Chaotix apartment.

The popcorn wasn't the only thing that fell. Charmy rolled right off of the couch, landing with a dull _thud _on the floor. "Wha- where... what happened?" Charmy asked sleepily as he woke.

Espio merely stood rooted to the spot, anger rumbling inside of him just as his hunger was. "You couldn't lay still long enough for me to grab just _one handful _of popcorn? Damn it Charmy!" He cried.

Charmy propped himself up on his elbows, accidentally crushing some of the popcorn. "Oh... sorry. I didn't mean to," he mumbled.

Espio sighed and rubbed his brow tiredly. "I know, I know. Sorry, I didn't mean to get mad. I just haven't been sleeping well lately," he groaned.

Charmy blinked. "Vector?" he asked. Espio nodded.

Charmy shrugged and slowly stood. "Let's go wake him up then," he grinned All traces of sleepiness had left the bee's face.

"How? He's passed out cold!" Espio blinked.

"I got an idea though. If it doesn't work, we'll have to give him an electric shock or something," Charmy chuckled.

Two minutes later, Espio and Charmy were standing beside Vector's bed. Charmy was holding a can of shaving cream, while Espio held an old feather duster.

"Are you sure this is going to wake him up?" Espio asked.

"Positive. It might not work though," Charmy said.

Espio blinked and said, "That doesn't make any sense".

"Yeah, well gimme a break, I'm tired," Charmy snapped.

Charmy shook the can of shaving cream and squirted an extremely large amount onto Vector's meaty right palm, then nodded at Espio. Espio slowly reached out and lightly tickled Vector on the tip of his snout–

And the rest went down in history for the Chaotix. Vector reached up groggily to itch his nose, and promptly smeared the white foam across his face.

The crocodile's eyes snapped open immediately, and Charmy began to cackle uncontrollably at the sight of him.

"Ahaha- _Hahahaha!!_ Oh my- holy- you look so- oh my _god!_ That was the best thing I've ever seen! You look like frikin' Santa Clause!" Charmy howled, clutching at his stomach.

Espio, however, wasn't so enthusiastic.

"Hey, wake up! _Wake up!_" Espio shouted as Vector's eyelids began to droop again. Espio slapped his boss sharply across the face and Vector immediately sat bolt upright.

"Huh? Hey- where am I?" Vector slurred. Charmy shrieked with laughter an collapsed to the floor, kicking his legs wildly in the air.

"The apartment, don't you remember anything?" Espio asked.

Vector clutched his head. "Oh man, I feel like someone dropped an anvil on my head. Don't talk so loud," he groaned.

"I'm not talking loud- Charmy, will you shut up?" Espio cried.

Charmy stood and was able to somewhat pull himself together, only letting out bursts of brief laughter every once in a while.

"Why'd you wake me up?" Vector grumbled, rubbing his temples.

"You've been asleep for two and a half days; I think it's about time you've woken up," Espio said. Vector grumbled a curse, but stood slowly at any rate.

After making himself a cup of coffee, Vector plopped his half-drunken self onto the couch and picked up the television remote. "What are you guys doing?" he asked Charmy and Espio as he saw them start towards the bedroom.

"Going to bed, now that you're done snoring," Espio grumbled.

"Sweet! I finally get to sleep in a bed!" Charmy squealed, following Espio and jumping into Vector's now vacant bed. Vector dismissed the fact that neither of his friends said good-night and wiped the shaving cream from his nose with the couch pillow.

After flipping through many second-rate television shows, Vector finally settled for watching the midnight news on _FOX_.

Vector's ears perked up as he heard a certain story. Supposedly, numerous deaths had been occurring throughout the U.S. More people seemed to be drowning in the past three days then in the past three _months_. The strange part was, most of the cases took place in small towns that were very distant from any water source, such as a lake or a river. Also, there had been a recent break-in at a Hartford museum. The only item stolen was the white Chaos Emerald. _Pretty weird– and what's this? Storm alert! "Massive electrical storms throughout the states. Huh_, Vector thought. Despite being sleepy and partially drunk, something clicked in Vector's detective mind. _All of those storms have happened in those towns where those poor humans drowned... there's got to be some kind of connection_. Vector downed the coffee in one gulp and lay down on the couch. _Eh, I'll think about it tomorrow_, he thought before again falling into a deep sleep.

-----

Nighttime. It was a word that Shadow The Hedgehog had come to like. For some, the night held nothing but fear or night terrors, but for Shadow, it was a time of meditation. Often he would stand, perfectly balanced, on the same tree branch every night, listening to the sounds of the forest. Leaves rustled together in the wind, making the trees appear to come alive, whispering their own secrets to one another while the forest bugs chirped noisily below.

A slight wind blew across Shadow's face, making the tree branch sway dangerously. Shadow did not lose his balance though. He wasn't even holding onto the tree trunk for support. His relaxed state held no worries or anxieties, allowing Shadow the ability to do just about anything.

Shadow drew in a deep breath and then opened his eyes to observe the sun sinking below the trees to the west. It was that time of day when the sky had a deep orange-purple hue, when the clouds appeared to be pink smears on the darkening horizon.

Shadow swayed, leaned backwards, and then fluidly back flipped from the tree branch, landing with a shuddering _thud_ on both feet with one of his fists planted in the ground. The jet black hedgehog sighed as he stood to his feet. He enjoyed hearing the noises of the forest yes, but it was difficult to absorb them all with only one ear. Shadow touched the bandaged stump on his head as he began to walk through the forest. It still stung quite a bit. Oh, well. What was he supposed to do anyway, cry to a doctor about a little pain? He had handled worse. Still, it got aggravating quickly when Shadow found himself having to tilt his good ear towards anyone who was speaking.

Shadow shook his head as he neared the dark hollow that he called home. It had the bare necessities that he needed to live. There was a small bed made of dried grass and leaves in a corner, a stream that ran through the hollow that served for a drinking source, and if Shadow followed the flow of the stream, he would find a small pond suitable for bathing. A small ring of stones had been placed in the center of the hollow to serve as a campfire pit, and as far as shelter went, the thick tree boughs and their gargantuan leaves crisscrossing overhead screened out most rainwater.

Shadow sighed and leaned against a tree trunk in contentment. _Home sweet home_, he thought. Shadow stared at the tree for a moment, then stripped a chunk of the nutrient-filled fibers from the trunk and began to munch on them thoughtfully. When finished with what he considered a meal, Shadow closed his eyes and let the night fall over him like a dark blanket. Then the noise came.

Shadow's eyes snapped open and he immediately grew alert. Cautiously, he peered beyond the line of trees beyond the hollow, but could see nothing. _Just a deer_, Shadow thought uncertainly. However, he would sleep in a tree tonight. Just to be safe. Shadow knew all too well that there were many dangerous animals who dwelled in the forest, and most of them would be all too eager to find out what Shadow tasted like.

Shadow was about to climb the tree when he remembered something of great importance. Cautiously and silently, Shadow crept over to his makeshift bed, not taking his eyes away from the trees. Making no sudden movements, Shadow slipped his hand under the mattress and drew out a small bundle of grey cloth. A dim scarlet light was shimmering from beneath the rags. Shadow blinked and stared at the bundle for a moment. Was it just him, or did he feel the object pulsing beneath the cloth? Slowly he unwrapped the bundle, revealing the red Chaos Emerald in the rags. Shadow cupped it in his hands, feeling it's light warm his entire body. The pleasant feeling began at his hands, then raced up his arms and blossomed outward when it hit his chest.

_Thud_. Shadow stared at the emerald. It had happened again. He could feel the Chaos Emerald thumping slowly in his hands, as if it were a person's heart. It's light began to fade, then brighten in rhythm with it's beating. Shadow was utterly confused. The emerald only behaved this way when it sensed it's brothers nearby. That couldn't be possible though. Shadow had trekked through all regions of the forest, and not once did the emerald act like this. Then did that mean that another Chaos Emerald was moving towards him?

Shadow was about to pocket the emerald and scurry up into the forest canopy when he heard footsteps behind him. Shadow whirled around as quick as he could with one arm in a sling, and found himself face to face with another hedgehog.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Ultimate Life-Form himself," Apollo said in his usual, low drawl. "Out of all of them, you interested me the most," the orange hedgehog said.

"What did you say? All of who?" Shadow asked, bewildered. Apollo strode forward, his face the very essence of calm, but his eyes flashed when he saw the Chaos Emerald in Shadow's hand. Shadow blinked, noticing the yellow, purple, and white Chaos Emeralds encircling the other hedgehog. Shadow could almost feel the emerald he was holding being tugged towards the others, the way a paperclip might be tugged towards a magnet.

Shadow held fast to the emerald and stood up to his full height in an attempt to intimidate this other hedgehog, but to Shadow's dismay, Apollo still stood at least five centimeters taller than him. "How do you know my name?" Shadow asked angrily. To his surprise, he even heard a small amount of fear in his voice. Apparently Apollo had as well, for he smirked cooly and sat down on the edge of Shadow's bed, not waiting for an invitation.

"I know about you because my master and I have had our eye on this planet for some time now," Apollo said almost conversationally. "I know as much as I need to know about you, and your friends".

"They're not my friends," Shadow growled.

"Oh, that's right, my mistake. Of course they're not. How could they be? Shadow The Hedgehog has no friends. He is too _good _for them. After all, he's the Ultimate Life, and all others are inferior to him," Apollo snickered.

Shadow realized that this hedgehog was mocking him, but he didn't care at the moment. He was too busy wondering just _who _he was talking to. "Who are you, and what are you talking about? Who's your master?" he asked. Then he stopped. A smile began to spread across his face. "Okay, I get it. You're another psycho who wants the Chaos Emeralds in return for you telling me about my past, right? Been there, done that. If you know so much about me, then you should know that I've left my past behind me," Shadow said with a smirk of satisfaction on his face.

"My name is Apollo. And no, _I_ do have need of the emeralds, Shadow," Apollo said cooly. "It is a pity, but unlike you or the blue hedgehog that you know, I cannot use the seven Chaos Emeralds. I am collecting the emeralds as... a service to an old friend. Give me the Chaos Emerald please. I would much prefer not to have to hurt you".

Shadow suddenly realized what color Apollo was. _Orange_. "It was you," he said quietly. "You killed Jet!"

Apollo shook his head slowly. "Don't think of it as death. Think of it as a sort of... oh, a spiritual release," he said, grinning.

Shadow shook his head in disbelief. This hedgehog openly admitted to murdering Jet, and then wanted Shadow to help him?

"My master believes that it is a waste of time to try to deal with you," Apollo said as he stood. "However, I am hopeful that you will do what is best for you and hand that emerald over to me. If you do that, I can promise you that my master will treat you well when he arrives at this..." Apollo wrinkled his nose in disgust and looked around at the rotting, termite filled trees and tree stumps. "Did you say this was a planet?" he asked.

Apollo shrugged and then gave Shadow another icy glance. "Can I make a deal with you?" Apollo asked.

Shadow looked down at the Chaos Emerald in his hands. _I cannot use the seven Chaos Emeralds... it is a service for an old friend_, Apollo's words echoed in his head. _My master will treat you well..._

Master? What was he talking about? Riches? Anything he wanted? Those thoughts appealed to Shadow. Shadow shrugged. "Sure, what the hell. I'll make a deal with you. I never liked Jet much anyway," he said.

Apollo's eyes glinted. "Good. Now If you would," he said, holding out a hand to take the Chaos Emerald from Shadow.

Shadow pretended that he didn't notice. "Yeah, and here's the deal. I spit in your face-" Shadow hawked and promptly spat a large loogie at Apollo, which splattered against his right cheek. Apollo didn't do so much as flinch. "-And you get out of my sight," Shadow finished.

Apollo sighed and wiped Shadow's spittle from his face with disgust. "Disappointing, Shadow. I thought you were different than the others," Apollo said. Shadow just scowled.

"I've heard that before, and it's not true. Now go back to your precious master and tell him that I'm not a sucker. This emerald belongs to _me_," he said, brushing past Apollo and heading towards the forest. Apollo made no sign of stopping him, but just as Shadow neared the wall of trees, Apollo spoke.

"You know, when I said 'give me the Chaos Emerald', I wasn't offering you a choice to keep it or not," he said in a low voice. Shadow ignored this and was about to enter the forest when a pair of glowing green eyes appeared in the darkness. Then another, and another, and another, until Shadow could see at least twenty pairs of eyes.

Shadow couldn't believe what his eyes were showing him. Four of the pairs of eyes advanced, and as they stepped into the dim moonlight that shone through the forest canopy, Shadow began to see what the eyes belonged to.

Their bodies were unlike anything that Shadow had seen before. The silvery rays of the moonlight caught the Chaos Clones' bodies, reflecting them outward in all directions. Soon, they had encircled Shadow and Apollo, but Apollo didn't seem concerned one bit.

Instead, the orange hedgehog strode right up to the circle of Chaos Clones. To Shadow's surprise, they parted, allowing Apollo to pass outside of the circle. Apollo turned back to Shadow.

"This is your last chance, Shadow. I do not wish for you to be harmed. I want the Chaos Emerald, that's all," Apollo said. Shadow glanced at him, then looked at the Chaos Emerald that he was holding. Perhaps if he was quick enough, he could use Chaos Control to warp himself away-

But apparently Apollo had been anticipating this. "Get him," he commanded the Chaos Clones. Shadow's lightning quick reflexes saved him from a sledgehammer blow from one of the Chaos Clones. Shadow ducked as another Chaos punched at him, accidentally hitting another of the clones instead.

Apollo sneered as the Chaos Clones surrounded Shadow, attacking from all directions. Shadow leapt into the air, avoiding a flying tackle from one of the liquid monsters, then drop-kicked another as he came down again. Fighting was difficult for Shadow, since he had only one good arm to fight with, but even so, he was able to keep the Chaos Zero clones at bay.

The black hedgehog jumped onto one of the Chaos Clone's massive fists as it attempted to punch him, then spring-boarded off of it, launching himself into the trees. The Chaos Zeros followed, climbing the trees slowly with their soft, clinging grips.

Although they climbed the trees slowly and sloth-like, the Chaos Clones leapt from branch to branch with astounding agility once they reached the forest canopy. Shadow knew that they were in hot pursuit and pushed himself to his limits, dodging Chaos Zeros as they lunged at him while at the same time, bouncing from tree to tree as he tried to escape the forest. He had to get to an open area before trying to outrun the Chaos Clones, or else he would most likely run smack into a tree.

To Shadow's horror, more Chaos Zeros were flooding the area below, their heavy footfalls crushing the underbrush of the forest. There were dozens of them. Shadow tried to count them as he leapt from tree to tree, but eventually gave up at sixty-eight. More were coming.

The Chaos Clones seemed to be coming from nowhere, and everywhere at the same time. Some looked up at Shadow as they ran, watching him leap through the forest with more grace than an Olympic gymnast. Shadow was at a loss to where he was. _If I keep running blindly, I'll never get out of here. I need to see which direction I need to go_, Shadow thought as he tucked the Chaos Emerald under the armpit of his broken right arm and scampered to the top of the tree he had stopped at.

Although it was nighttime, Shadow could dimly make out where the forest ended in the faint light of the full moon.. Shadow had guessed right. If he had continued to head South, he would have been running for hundreds of miles. He needed to go East if he wanted to escape-

Suddenly the tree began to shudder violently. Below, the Chaos Clones had laid hold of the tall Oak tree that Shadow had paused at and were rocking it to and fro. The tree trunk began to splinter near it's base, and then with a violent _crash_ it fell to the forest floor, tearing off the limbs of it's fellow trees on the way down.

Shadow was flung through the air, then laded heavily on his right side. Shadow heard a low _crack_, and a surge of pain tore through his arm. The bone, which had recently been set, popped out of place once again. Shadow screamed, unable to handle the excruciating pain in his arm. The Chaos Clones didn't give him time to recuperate though. They lunged at Shadow immediately after he hit the ground, but with difficulty, the black hedgehog dodged aside, rolling out into a flip that brought him to his feet.

The Chaos Clones landed with a loud _thud_ where Shadow had been moments before. One of them leapt to it's feet. Before Shadow knew what was happening, it's arm had stretched out towards him and it was grabbing at the Chaos Emerald in Shadow's hand.

Shadow wrenched his hand backwards, dragging the Chaos Clone towards him. When it was mere feet from where he was standing, he thrust his hand forward, aiming to punch the Chaos Zero in between the eyes. Instead, there was a loud _splutch_, and Shadow's hand sank into the Chaos Clone's face, slipping into the lump of knobbed flesh of it's brain. The Chaos Clone writhed in the dirt for a few moments, then went as limp as a dead worm.

Shadow pulled his hand out from the dead Chaos Clone's head and shook it's brains from his fist. Shadow looked around to see the many Chaos Clones pick their liquid selves up from the ground. He was surrounded by hundreds of them, and knew that he couldn't fight them all, especially in the state that he was in.

As the Chaos Clones tensed themselves to spring at him one last time, Shadow drew the Chaos Emerald out and raised it into the air. "Chaos Control!" he cried as the Chaos Zeros, almost catlike, pounced at him.

Twenty of the liquid monsters fell onto the bright flash of scarlet light. More of them leapt onto the pile, as though determined to keep their victim from escaping. They remained that way, one on top of another, until Apollo stepped out from between the trees. He nodded at the pile of Chaos Clones, and they obediently dispersed, slipping into a long line of Chaos Zeros behind Apollo. When the last of them oozed backwards, a sharp intake of breath hissed through Apollo's teeth.

There was a pair of footprints in the dirt that the Chaos Clones had piled onto. Shadow was gone.

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**Author's Note: **If you've read this far, THANK YOU. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. Please review, even if you didn't like it. I just want suggestions to make it better.


	4. Twenty Hours, And Counting

**Author's Note:** I apologize to anyone who's been waiting for an update. I have no excuse. I hope you enjoy this new chapter, and as always, please review!

-----

Tails sighed and lifted a custom-made welding mask away from his face to inspect his current project. He nodded in approval at the two metal joints that he had welded together, then stepped back to observe the machine he was building.

It was considerably larger than Tails himself. It had a large, circular disc in the center, big enough for three grown humans to stand upon, and a small hollow spot in the center, as though something was supposed to be placed there. Connected to the disc were four large towers, closely resembling lightning rods, but they were curved inward, forming a sort of domed top for the machine. A small control panel, no bigger than Tails' own hand, was attached to the side of one of these towers.

Out of all of the smashed and half-melted machinery Tails had found in the ruins of the Egg Fortress, this particular creation intrigued Tails the most. He had managed to restore most of it, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was for.

The controls were so simple that Tails would have laughed at Eggman's stupidity. That is, if he wasn't dead. The device had absolutely no security system that Tails needed to bypass to use it. All anyone had to do was activate the machine, then push the large red button that took up most of the space on the control panel. To Tails, it seemed as though it were a device meant to b activated in a hurry.

What really befuddled Tails though, was the slot in the direct center of the disc. What was supposed to go there? Tails stepped forward yet another time and knelt down to get a closer look at the slot. It was rather large, and had an octagonal shape. Tails blinked. _Was the Master Emerald supposed to go there?_ he thought to himself. It was likely. As a matter of fact, the more Tails thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. After all, Eggman _was_ after the Master Emerald, wasn't he?

_But why? _Tails kept asking himself. _It would make more sense for Eggman to try to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, wouldn't it? After all, they generate more power than the Master Emerald. I'd think he would want more power if he was going to try to destroy something_. Tails stepped down from the machine and sighed. Oh, well. It wasn't like it really mattered anyway.

Still, curiosity tugged at the corners of Tails' mind, bringing him back to the machine every now ans then. _Forget it Prower_, he told himself after he had eaten a dinner of cold spaghetti. _Just forget it. Eggman is gone, so don't worry about his wacky inventions_. Tails strode over to his cot by the wall and climbed in, stealing one last glance at the machine before flipping the light switch off.

Tails fumbled for the T.V. remote under his cot and turned his old 1980's T.V.

, Tails thought. Tails pressed the channel changing button on the remote one more time and _Comedy Central _came on. Tails shrugged as a new episode of _South Park_ began to play. It was better than nothing. 

Tails watched until a storm warning began to blare on the television. _Severe thunderstorms? _Tails thought. It was rather confusing. Lately, the weather had been beautiful. Tails shook his head and switched the T.V. off. He rolled over and tried to get some sleep, but again found himself distracted by his thoughts of Eggman's machine.

Suddenly, Tails sat bolt upright in his cot. He felt like slapping himself, it was so simple. He had managed to retrieve the memory base of Eggman's Egg Fortress from the wreckage, and although some of the files were damaged or broken , most of them were, miraculously, intact.

Tails literally flew out of bed, landing on the far side of the room, where his computer was. Moving with speed and fluency that would impress even Sonic, Tails flicked the switch to turn the computer on and began to rummage through his desk drawers, searching for the discs that contained files from Robotnik's Egg Mainframe.

Within a few moments, Tails had fished the discs from the drawer and was testing each, looking for a machine that he had never heard of before.

Letters shot across the screen at blazing speeds. Most people wouldn't be able to read it, but fortunately for Tails, he wasn't most people. To him, the letters formed strings of computer code that seemed to buzz through the computer as though they were cars on a busy freeway. _Nothing here,_ Tails thought after he had finished checking the first disc. Perhaps the second one would have the data that Tails needed.

Tails was about to pop another of the Mainframe Fragments into his computer's disc drive when a loud _Bang _came from the front door. Tails blinked and looked at the door of his workshop. The noise came again. Someone was knocking on the front door. "Wh-who is it?" Tails stammered. _Why am I afraid?_ he wondered. _Because it's a dark, stormy night, and I'm all alone? Yeah, that's probably it_. To Tails' relief, a familiar voice came from the other side of the door.

"It's me, Sonic. Can I come in? It's pouring rain out here," Sonic said. Tails glanced at his computer, then at the door.

"Yeah, come on in. I think the door's open," he said. The door swung open, revealing a sopping wet, grumpy looking blue hedgehog.

"I _hate_ water," Sonic said, peeling his blue sweater away from his quills. "Thanks for letting me in," he added.

"Yeah, no problem. What's the matter, got no where else to go?" Tails asked his friend.

"Huh? Oh, well... no," Sonic admitted, wringing out his sweater over the kitchen sink. Tails carefully placed the third fragment of the Egg Mainframe into his computer after seeing that the second had nothing of interest on it. "What're you doing?" Sonic asked, looking over Tails' shoulder.

"Trying to see what Eggman knew about that thing," Tails said, pointing to the machine in the corner of the room.

Sonic strode forward to examine it. "What's it for?" he asked. Tails shrugged.

"That's what I'm trying to find out. It must have something to do with the Master Emerald though. See that slot there?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded. "I think that's where the Master Emerald was- or _is-_ supposed to go".

Sonic sighed. "Just another wacked out machine to try to blow something up, I bet," he said. However, Tails frowned.

"That's what I thought at first, but now I'm starting to doubt that," he said. When Sonic looked at him inquisitively, Tails began to explain. "The Master Emerald generates energy like the Chaos Emeralds, You know that, right?" Tails asked Sonic.

"Yeah, kind of," Sonic said.

Tails nodded and continued. "However, the energy that the Master Emerald generates is quite different than the energy of the Chaos Emeralds. I guess you should think about it this way: the Master Emerald is like a big heart, right? Now picture the seven Chaos Emeralds as... oh, let's say muscles. Are you understanding what I'm trying to say?"

Sonic blinked. "That there needs to be a brain?" he asked dumbly. Tails shook his head.

"No, no brain. Listen, I'm trying to put this into terms that you'll understand, but just listen please," Tails said.

"I'm listening".

"Alright. Now a heart pumps oxygen to the muscles so that they can work. Well, the Master Emerald does sort of the same thing. It has the power to enhance or neutralize Chaos Energy, which is what you use to transform into your Super form, or what Eggman would use for powering a weapon. Unlike the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald doesn't have sufficient energy to actually destroy anything. So you see? Why would Eggman try to use the Master Emerald instead of the Chaos Emeralds? _Those _are what he would need if he wanted to make a bomb or something!"

Sonic stared at Tails in wonder. "You figured all that out by yourself?" he asked.

"Well, I ...uh... yeah," Tails said humbly. Sonic grinned and leapt on top of Tails to give him a loving noogie on the head.

"You're a genius Tails! I knew it! I _knew_ it!" Sonic laughed. Tails laughed and was about to say something like 'what you haven't figured that out by now?' when thunder clapped outside, making both Tails and Sonic jumped.

"Yeah, alright," Sonic said after a moment. "So why would Eggman want to neutralize Chaos Energy? If he was close enough to the emeralds to do it, I'd think he would just try to nab them instead".

Tails frowned. "I think that I just figured out what that was for," he said, looking at the machine.

"What?" Sonic asked.

"Well I could be wrong, but I have a hunch. Only Knuckles can use the Master Emerald to neutralize Chaos Energy, but what if Eggman built that machine to harness that ability?" Tails said.

Sonic shrugged and said, "I don't know, but I think I'll be getting to bed. I'm pretty tired. We have tomorrow to figure it out too, right?"

Tails blinked. "Does that mean you're staying here for a while?" he asked. Sonic grinned.

"Sure, if you want me to. Are there blankets in the cabinet? I'll be fine just sleeping on the floor," he said. Tails just nodded and turned back to his computer. He still wanted to know what the machine was for sure. Tails was about to insert the fifth disc into his computer when he heard a yelp from the other room. Sonic came bolting into the room, accidentally slipping on a puddle of water he had brought in.

"What's the matter?" Tails asked urgently.

"Lock the door, quick!" Sonic gasped. Without hesitation, Tails strode over to the front door and bolted it shut. Sonic scrambled to his feet and flipped the light switch off.

"What's the matter?" Tails asked Sonic.

"Shush!" Sonic hissed, getting down on his hands and knees. Tails did the same, but peeked over the window to try to see what had scared Sonic so badly. Then he saw it. Three hulking silhouettes were approaching Tails' Workshop. The lightning flashed too briefly for Tails to see what they were, but their shape looked familiar. They reached the workshop, seemed to look at each other, then one slammed it's fist against the door.

Tails flinched as the door shuddered. The thing hit the door again, and again, but it didn't give way. Tails suddenly thanked God that he had recently put titanium hinges, framing, and locks on the door. There was a low gurgle from outside, then the creatures dispersed, lumbering away slowly.

Sonic let out a loud sigh once they were gone. "Man, that scared me," he said, standing up. He tossed the blanket down onto the floor and looked at Tails. "I think we should keep the door locked, don't you think?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," Tails sighed. "What were they?"

Sonic looked uncertainly at the door and frowned. "I don't know for sure what I saw, but I hope they weren't what I thought they were," he said.

-----

Shadow limped up the lonely street, hearing only the sounds of his heavy breathing and of his own blood dripping to the pavement. He muttered an occasional curse, and every now and then, he looked back to the bone protruding from under the flesh and black quills on his right arm. His right hand clenched and unclenched feebly, while his left held fast to the scarlet Chaos Emerald. Stumbling, limping, and muttering the foulest curses he could think of, he made his way to the nearest house on the road. Shadow had Chaos Controlled himself somewhere to a nearby village, only to find that there was yet another danger- he was bleeding profusely, and if he didn't get help soon, he had no doubt that he would pass out.

Already Shadow felt his senses reeling, and he swooned as he reached the driveway of a cute little house with cream colored siding and a tan, shingled roof. Shadow staggered up to the door, bleeding on the doormat that read: _Welcome To Our Humble Home_. His eyelids drooped as he raised his fist and pounded on the door. "Who is it?" the high voice of a little girl answered. Shadow blinked. Was it the fact that he had lost about three pints of blood, or did he recognize the voice? His eyes suddenly widened, and he stepped back to examine the house again. It was all too familiar to him.

Shadow realized whose house it was too late, and he was just able to croak out one word before the door opened, "_Shit_".

"Mommy look, It's Mister Shadow!" Cream the Rabbit squealed from the door. Then the six year old rabbit's smile faded. "Mister Shadow, you're hurt!" she gasped. "Come inside, it's cold out there." On other circumstances, Shadow would have either protested or run away, but he had no other choice if he wanted to make it through the night.

Shadow tottered inside and flopped down onto the sofa. "Bandages," he croaked. "Just bandages, that's all I need; then I'll be on my way." Cream shivered and turned away from Shadow's maimed arm as she scurried past him into the kitchen. Shadow felt himself fading out of consciousness, and just before his vision went black, he felt Cheese the Chao land next to him on the sofa.

"Chao Chao?" he asked inquisitively. Then Shadow passed out.

-----

When Shadow awoke, he was lying in a warm bed. Frowning in confusion, he looked about. He seemed to be in a bedroom, and whoever it belonged to, they liked Chao faces. _Cream's room_, Shadow thought.

Although he was no longer bleeding, his arm still had not been re-set. He blinked. Where was his Chaos Emerald? Quickly, he threw the covers off of himself and stood. Upon feeling a soft carpet between his toes, Shadow realized that his Air Shoes were gone. No, not gone. There they were, sitting at the foot of the bed, and not only that, but it seemed at though they had been cleaned and polished as well. _Where am I, the palace? _Shadow thought with a snicker. He put on his Air Shoes and kicked their heels against the floor. With a low _whoosh_, they ignited. They sputtered for a moment, but then continued to work as normal. Whoever had polished them apparently hadn't checked the anti-grav repulsors underneath. Shadow was about to step out of the bedroom door when it swung open, almost hitting Shadow in the face. "Oh! I didn't expect you to be up and about already!" Vanilla the Rabbit said, smiling sweetly down at Shadow.

Shadow frowned as he caught sight of the tray Vanilla was cradling in her arms. "What's that?" he asked. Vanilla blinked and looked down at the bowl of soup and the loaf of bread that was on the tray.

"Oh, this? Well, I thought you might be hungry, so I brought you some dinner. It's vegetable soup; very nutritious," Vanilla said, smiling. Shadow stared at her blankly. Vanilla's smile slowly faded. "Um, you're one of Cream's friends, right? She seems to recognize you," Vanilla said, shifting the tray from one arm to the other uncomfortably.

"Yeah, whatever," Shadow said slowly. The soup smelled delicious to him, but he wasn't hungry. "Well, thanks for the offer, but I've got to get going. So if you could give me my Chaos Emerald back, I'll be on my merry way-"

Vanilla stopped him as he tried to move past her into the hallway. "I haven't set your arm yet," she said firmly. " Sit down on the bed so I can do it. I'll let you go afterwards, but if I don't help, it won't heal right." Shadow scowled, but sat down on the bed as Vanilla had instructed him to. Vanilla picked up a leather glove from the tray and handed it to Shadow.

Shadow was confused. "What's this for?" he asked.

"Bite down on it, this may hurt a bit," Vanilla said as she began to unwrap the fresh bandages on Shadow's arm. Shadow then noticed that another roll of bandages and a small strip of wood on the tray. Both of them grimaced at the sight of Shadow's arm. Apparently Shadow had landed on it in just the right way to make both broken ends of the bone push against each other. One of the ends had splintered, and the splinter had been driven up through the muscle and flesh of Shadow's arm. "Don't you worry a bit. I washed my hands thoroughly just before I came in here," Vanilla said. Despite her reassurances, Shadow was a bit uneasy. Did Vanilla know anything about mending broken bones? Shadow felt pain tear through his arm as quickly and suddenly as a flash of lightning. He was about to jerk his arm away from Vanilla's grasp when the pain immediately subsided into a steady throbbing of heat from deep within his arm. Vanilla smiled apologetically to him. "Sorry, but I had to take that splinter out," she said. Shadow looked down at Vanilla's handkerchief and saw a small sliver of bloody bone lying in the center of the white cloth.

Vanilla motioned towards the leather glove in Shadow's hands. He understood. Shadow placed the glove between his teeth and bit down as hard as he could. "This will feel a little weird," Vanilla said, and pushed the bone down. "Weird" wasn't the word to describe the feeling. Shadow squeezed his eyes shut, then with a muffled cry of pain and a low _pop_, the bone went back into place.

Vanilla quickly put the strip of wood under Shadow's forearm and wrapped the new bandages around it to serve as a splint. Shadow sighed and looked up at Vanilla. "How did you know how to do that?" he asked

"Oh, I was a nurse at a Station Square hospital before Cream was born," she said, standing. Vanilla looked at Shadow and frowned. "You're sure you don't want to eat? Not even tea? I wouldn't want to see one of Cream's friends hungry".

Shadow shook his head. "Thanks, but no thanks. All I need is the Chaos Emerald I had with me," he said, sliding carefully off the edge of the bed. Vanilla shrugged.

"Alright. Cream's new friend has it with him. Or maybe it's a she, I can't really tell," Vanilla said. She turned and called into the hallway, "Come on in, we're waiting for you!"

Shadow's eyes widened as a hunched figure lumbered into the room. He had seen it before, or at least something like it.

Quickly, he snatched a knife up from the tray and pointed it at the figure. Vanilla gasped. "What's the matter? No- put that down!" she cried. Shadow gazed icily at the Chaos Clone that was standing in the bedroom doorway, holding the Chaos Emerald in one of it's oversized hands.

"That _thing_ attacked me," Shadow snarled through clenched teeth. The Chaos Clone did nothing, but merely stared blankly at Shadow with it's lidless eyes.

"That's impossible, he's been watching T.V. with Cream and I for the last half-hour!" Vanilla cried. Shadow remained poised with the tip of the knife pointing towards the Chaos Clone. Slowly, the Chaos Zero stretched it's arm towards Shadow, holding the Chaos Emerald out to him. Shadow stared at the emerald for a few moments.

"See? He's harmless!" Vanilla said. Shadow frowned, but reluctantly put the knife back on the tray and plucked the crimson Chaos Emerald from the clone's hand. The Chaos Clone nodded slowly, then turned and thumped its way out of the room. Shadow scowled.

"Where did you find that thing?" he asked.

"Cream found him on the side of the road yesterday. She said he looked lonely, and he's been with us since yesterday afternoon." Shadow frowned and gazed at the Chaos Emerald intently.

"Why does Cream always do that?" he asked.

"What?"

"Why does she- and you do it too! Why do you always trust everyone? You aren't in the least bit suspicious about anyone or anything? People could take advantage of you!" Shadow cried. He had no idea what had come over him. Was it that seeing them so carefree and happy made him angry? Shadow suddenly paused. _Do I _want _people to be as miserable as I am? _he thought. Then he shook his head. Miserable? Him? He wasn't miserable... was he?

But Vanilla just shrugged. "If you make other people happy, you're happy," she said simply, before starting towards the door.

"I'm just warning you. Don't trust that thing," Shadow said. Vanilla sighed, but nodded.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye on him. But if nothing happens, I want you to come back and apologize to him. Or ...it," Vanilla said.

Shadow stared at her for a moment. Then as she turned and began to leave, he spoke up. "Um, I just wanted to..." he glanced down at his arm, "thank you".

"Your welcome," Vanilla smiled. She stepped out of the room, but looked back inside curiously. To her surprise, Shadow didn't follow her. In fact, he wasn't even _in the room_ anymore. The window was open, and a cool breeze was blowing into the room, making the silk curtains swirl like a pair of ghosts dancing in the breeze.

"Come downstairs, mommy! Seinfeld just came on T.V.!" Cream called from downstairs. Vanilla shrugged and closed the door. _So that's Mister Shadow? He seems to be the strong, silent type_, Vanilla thought as she climbed downstairs.

-----

Rouge sat in the office chair, swiveling around in circles. _Just ten more minutes_, she thought. Two days ago, she had signed up for a job as a night security guard in a museum. Fortunately, she was the only one on duty tonight. Her first night on the job had been spent casing the museum; seeing where the camera's and security systems were set up, and keeping an eye out for jewels.

And in ten more minutes, she could get into action. That morning, she had placed a miniature time bomb underneath the large Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton near the entrance of the museum. It was set to go off at twelve o'clock tonight, and right now...

Rouge looked at the digital clock on the museum's main desk. It read that she now had five more minutes. Rouge smiled to herself. She had built the time bomb herself, and made special changes to it. The blast wouldn't be an explosion at all. Rather, it would be a large burst of electromagnetism that would knock out the building's entire security system.

Rouge rubbed drowsiness from her eyes and glanced at the clock again. _One more minute_, she thought. She began to count down the seconds from sixty, tapping her finger on the desk as each second passed.

Soon, she had no need to use her echolocation to direct herself, as she came upon a soft blue glow emanating from a glass case at the end of the corridor. Rouge grinned.

_Bingo_, she thought as she strode up to the emerald. She looked at the glass casing and shrugged. _Well, I guess I don't have to worry about subtlety_, she thought. Rouge lifted her foot and kicked the glass, causing it to shatter into dozens of shards. Amidst the pieces of broken glass, the sapphire Chaos Emerald gleamed even brighter, its light reflected and enhanced tenfold by the broken casing.

Rouge eagerly snatched it up, then started for the stairs, tearing the security guard name tag off of her shirt as she walked. She wouldn't be coming back. As she descended the stairs, Rouge contemplated the events that had occurred over the last three days.

Since the death of Robotnik, Rouge was told that the government "no longer needed her services". She hadn't been to happy about that; after all, it was the government that rewarded her with jewels. So Rouge was back to petty theft, and if she was lucky, a big time heist or two every once and a while.

Rouge stopped and softly snickered to herself. She had thought that so _casually_ that it would probably scare most people. But then again, she led a thief's life. She wasn't the type of girl who would settle in for a job that any old shmoe could do. Ever since Rouge was a young bat, she had wanted _fun_. She wanted _excitement_ and _thrills_. When she was thirteen, Rouge's family was going through a rough time. Her father was between jobs, her mother had to stay at home to take care of Rouge's baby brother. He hadn't yet been named, and when Rouge began to call him "Buzzer", it had stuck. One day, Rouge had been sent out to buy some diapers for little Buzzer from the local shopping center. On the way out of the store, Rouge had caught sight of a jewelry store across the street. Looking back on it now, she supposed her family could have gotten along fine without what she had done, but then, she had thought that it was her only choice.

Rouge had casually walked into the store and told the woman at the sales desk that she wanted to buy a pair of gold earrings. When the woman had turned her back on her, Rouge had quickly reached into the glass case and picked three diamond rings from their boxes. The woman hadn't even noticed. After heaving an exaggerated sigh after being told that she couldn't afford the earrings, Rouge left the store- and took the diamond rings with her.

Rouge was so deep in thought that she didn't realize one crucial item that she had missed. She had forgotten to take care of the building's backup power generator.

Rouge stopped dead in her tracks as the lights suddenly snapped on and an alarm began to wail throughout the building. _Oh, shit_, Rouge thought. She knew how these alarms worked. In about three minutes, the police would come screeching up to the museum, and she had no doubt that they would be armed.

Oh, well. If she was lucky, three minutes would be enough. Rouge tucked the Chaos Emerald into her pocket and lightly sprang up onto the wall, her sensitive fingers holding onto the tiniest of cracks. Slowly, she scaled the wall as though she were some sort of anthropomorphic bat-spider hybrid, her sensitive thieve's fingers finding cracks and footholds that no ordinary person could even see.

Softly but quickly, Rouge crept up the wall until she reached the ceiling, where she leapt from the wall to one of the many steel beams crisscrossing the ceiling. Swinging as though she were a monkey in a steel and concrete jungle, Rouge soared from beam to beam until she reached the large, domed window on top of the roof. With one fluid dive, she flipped up and crashed, feet first, through the window. Pivoting in midair, Rouge landed lightly on the roof of the museum just as police cars screeched to a halt outside of the museum. She blinked in surprise. They sure had arrived quicker than she expected. It was almost as if they _knew_ that it was going to happen.

Rouge peered down at them and smirked. They were rushing to cover the back door. Didn't they know that most thieves would anticipate that?

A cop got out of his car and began speaking into his radio. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I _know_, we just took a little break- well how could I know? A guard was on duty..." the cop's face was beat red, and he appeared to be livid with anger. "Well I don't know, now do I? I-" the cop stopped as a golden Lotus Elise slowly came to a stop next to the other cop cars. "Damn, you're here already?" the cop asked before switching his radio off.

The door of the Lotus opened, and a blue boot with a white stripe running down the middle stepped out. The cop took one look at the figure who had stepped from the vehicle, then laughed. "So _this_ is the guy who's been paying me, huh? A hedgehog?"

The rust orange hedgehog gazed intently at the cop. "Lieutenant Crawford, you were given strict orders," he said.

"Now that I've seen you, I think it's hard to believe I took those orders you," Crawford grunted.

Apollo scowled. "You took them, lieutenant, and I specifically told you to stay at watch here until I arrived for the emerald," he said in a mechanically flat voice.

"Hey, a guard was on duty! She said she'd take care of things. We needed caffeine, or we'd have fallen asleep," Crawford said indignantly.

"Where is this guard now?" Apollo asked. He looked up at the roof of the museum, and for a moment Rouge was afraid that he saw her, but then his piercing gaze passed by.

"Well, she should still be inside..." Crawford said, trailing off as two more figures seemed to _ooze_ out of the Lotus. "What in the hell are those?" he cried, regarding the two Chaos Clones with disgust.

"Bodyguards," Apollo growled. He stepped towards the door of the museum, heedless to the warnings of Crawford.

"It's locked up tight. Unless you want to set off another alarm, you shouldn't-"

Crawford stopped in mid sentence as both Chaos Clones laid hold of both doors, then wrenched them off of their hinges. "That's museum property, you know. They could sue," Crawford called after Apollo as the hedgehog entered the building. The first thing he noticed was the broken glass from the roof window scattered across the floor. With a sneer, he looked upwards. Rouge was unlucky enough to be seen peering down at him from the roof.

She immediately took off running, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in her frantic attempt to escape whatever pursuit that was after her. Quickly glancing over her shoulder, she realized that she had something to fear. Both Apollo and one of the Chaos Clones had climbed a nearby fire escape, and were now in hot pursuit. On the streets below, police cars were screeching around corners, desperate to keep Rouge in sight. Rouge suddenly heard a loud _bang_ behind her, and fragments of brick and cement exploded from a chimney barely three inches away from the side of her head.

Rouge risked a quick glance back as she landed on another rooftop and saw that Apollo had stopped five yards away. He had drawn a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson Sigma from his side holster, and Rouge had no doubt that if she stayed still for a split second, her brains would be leaking out through her forehead. So she sprang forward, took two long strides, then dove straight off of the edge of the building, spreading her wings wide to catch air and slow her fall. It was quite a mistake.

A bullet punched a hole the size of Rouge's fist through the thin membrane of her left wing. With a cry of pain, she lost balance in the air and began to spiral towards the ground. With one last exhausting effort, Rouge managed to guide herself to a narrow fire escape on the side of an apartment building. There, she landed with a harsh _clang_, slipped, fell down to a lower level on the fire escape, then seemed to melt into the shadows.

Apollo strode forward and peered into the darkness. Behind him, he could hear the labored breathing of a group of cops who had finally caught up with him. "Where'd she go?" a panting Crawford asked.

"Do I look like I know?" Apollo snarled, obviously agitated at the loss of yet another Chaos Emerald. "Have your men patrol the streets".

Crawford looked down off of the edge of the rooftop and shivered. "When do I get paid? I'm doing all this shit for you, and I haven't seen a cent of the money you're offering me," he said. A ghost of a smile appeared on Apollo's lips.

"Be patient, lieutenant. You'll get your money in twenty hours," he said as he holstered his weapon. Crawford scowled.

"I'd better. I'm risking my badge for this," he muttered. As the cops turned away, Apollo stood where he was.

In twenty hours, they would get their money. _It's all these humans seem to care about_, Apollo thought. They would get paid, but little did they know...

That in twenty hours their race would cease to exist. Apollo looked up at what appeared to be a giant rainstorm approaching the city. He knew better though; he knew that it was his master. "Almost there," he whispered. "We are almost there, my master."


	5. The Eater of Worlds

**Location: Station Square **

Time Remaining: 19:57

Rouge sat in complete darkness in an alleyway. She had been lucky that there had been a dumpster under her to break her fall when she fell from the fire escape. As she caught her breath, Rouge tried to remember what had occurred in the split second between her diving from the roof to the fire escape. Had that orange hedgehog shot her?

Rouge shook the dizziness out of her head, supposing that it didn't matter. _Come on Rouge, your almost there_, she thought. Doing her best to ignore the pain in her wing, she crawled out of the heaps of garbage and dropped to the hard cement of the ground. Her apartment was two blocks away. Just two blocks, and she could fix herself up, then get out of there as fast as she could. Maybe she could try to find Shadow. He usually had a makeshift apartment set up somewhere in Westopolis.

Rouge did her best not to draw attention to herself as she made her way down the street. It was difficult with a gaping hole in one of her wings. Stumbling into her apartment, she hurried into the bathroom, snatching up all of the bandages that she could find. She knew that it probably wouldn't help much, but at least it would stop the bleeding. _I'm lucky he only hit the wing membrane_, Rouge thought grimly as she wrapped a thick layer of bandages around her left wing. As she stood, Rouge quickly realized that she might be better off trying to find a doctor, as more blood seemed to be oozing out from the wound than before. _Sure, a doctor could help. I might have to threaten to kill him so he doesn't call the police though_, Rouge thought.

No, she would be better off like this. Rouge sluggishly made her way to the bathroom and took a few aspirins to reduce the pain a little bit.

Then she sat on her bed, gazing at the sapphire Chaos Emerald, which she had sed on her bedside table. After getting some rest, she would try to call Shadow to ask if he could stay with him until the cops quit being itchy about the emerald. Then she closed her eyes, listening to the distant wail of police sirens. _Every thief makes miscalculations_, she thought. _Nobody's perfect after all._

-----

"Shadow! Hey, Shads!" a voice shouted from across the street. Shadow turned to see a young raccoon wearing a black Volcom baseball cap running towards him, dribbling a basketball with his right hand.

"Oh, no," Shadow muttered. He knew this boy. Vince Aberthany, one of the biggest annoyances of his life. At least while he was in the slums of Westopolis. Shadow had saved the boy from a severe beating by a few local gang members, and Vince had latched onto him ever since.

"Hey!" Vince shouted. He passed the basketball to Shadow, who ignored it and continued to walk while the ball bounced into an alley. Vince looked from the alley to Shadow, trying to figure out which one to go after first, eventually settling on Shadow. "Hey, Shadow man! I haven't seen you in weeks, where you been at?" Vince laughed when he caught up to the black hedgehog. Shadow huffed impatiently and quickened his pace. "Seriously, man. I wanted to talk to you," Vince continued.

"Alright. What?" Shadow asked, rounding suddenly on Vince. The thirteen year old raccoon merely grinned, undaunted.

Then he said, "Can I borrow that car you stole?"

At the word "borrow", Shadow had turned and continued down the sidewalk. "No no no, you haven't heard me out yet! Why you walkin' away?" Vince cried, jogging alongside his idol.

"First off, you're too young to drive. Secondly, I just don't trust you," Shadow said flatly. Then he stopped. "Which car are you talking about anyway?"

"The red one. Mustang," Vince said.

"No, no, no, and no," Shadow said, shaking his head. Vince scowled.

"Come on, man! You aren't old enough to drive either!" Vince said.

"I'm older than I look, kid. If anything, I should be _teaching_ punks like you how to drive, Shadow chuckled.

"Yeah, well- oh shit man! You're missin' an ear!" Vince gasped. Then he seemed to notice what Shadow looked like for the first time. "Damn man, you look like you've been through a shredder or something!" he muttered, taking his baseball cap off to scratch his head.

"Thanks," Shadow grunted sarcastically. They walked in silence for a while, until Vince brought up his question again.

"So will you think about it?" he persisted expectantly. Shadows eyes widened in both shock and anger.

"Think about what? Why do you even need a car any way?" he asked. Vince bit his lip, then lifted his hat to scratch his head again. It seemed to be a habit of his.

"I kinda told some buddies of mine that I'd give them a ride to some place," he said slowly, as though choosing his words carefully.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "And these 'buddies' of your's are... what? Drug dealers? Gang members?" he asked. Vince wrinkled his nose.

"No," he said rather standoffishly.

"Then who is it?" Shadow asked. He could see Vince's jaw muscles tighten with frustration.

"Fine, fine I'll tell you! It's this girl I met, and Shads, she is _so _out of my league. I don't even know how I got so lucky. Y'see, maybe she'll think I've got more money than I really do if I just borrow that car!" Vince said.

Shadow smirked. He had just _known_ that it was some sort of situation like that. "Well how about I drive you guys around, posing as you're rich father?" He asked.

Vince's face brightened. "Hey, that could work," he said.

"I was joking."

Vince scowled. "Well, I'll give you until tomorrow for your answer, and you'd better have it," he said. And with that, he turned and jaywalked across the road, disappearing into the crowd of people.

Shadow sighed and shook his head. _That kid_, he thought. Despite being a nuisance, Vince had grown on him. Perhaps, deep down, he felt the same affection for the young raccoon as Sonic felt for Tails. He just had a different way of expressing that affection.

Shadow eventually found the building he was looking for. It appeared rundown on the outside, but Shadow had set up a small tenement inside which was relatively warm and cozy on the inside. It had a large mattress which Shadow could sleep on, and only one of the windows was broken. It also had a phone and answering machine inside as well.

As Shadow entered the room and tossed his scarlet Chaos Emerald onto the mattress, he noticed something odd. A small number "1" was flashing on the answering machine hooked up to the phone. Curious, Shadow pressed the "play" button on the machine.

"You have... one... message," the answering machine droned in it's static crackling voice. Then a familiar voice surfaced over the jumble of static.

"Hi Shadow," Rouge's voice said. "Listen, I got into some trouble with the cops. So, I hope you don't mind, but I'm coming over you're place in Westopolis. . . See you there."

As soon as the message ended, Shadow tensed. He had the all too familiar feeling of tendrils of heat running up his spine. It was the feeling of being watched. Slowly, making no sudden movements, Shadow reached into the drawer of the table that the answering machine was on and pulled out a humongous handgun. It was a Desert Eagle, and it was at least three times the size of Shadow's hand.

Acting on pure, adrenaline fueled instinct, Shadow whirled around as something dropped from the ceiling behind him. But before he could do so much as raise the gun, the heel of a shoe connected with his wrist, knocking the Desert Eagle from Shadows grasp. Shadow was about to punch his attacker in the throat when a familiar voice came from the silhouette.

"Whoa, chill out Shadow! It's just me!"

Shadow lowered his fist and blinked. "Rouge?" he asked. "Jeez, you scared the crap out of me. Why are you sneaking up on me like that?:

"I wanted to surprise you, but I guess you're too jittery to take a joke today," Rouge said, raising an eyebrow. "Care to tell me what's on your back?" she asked.

Shadow scowled and quickly threw a blanket over the red Chaos Emerald on his bed. "Nope," he said. Then he noticed the large wad of bandages wrapped around Rouge's wing. "What happened to you?" he asked.

Rouge smirked. "Nothing," she said smartly. Shadow said nothing, but continued to stare at her with his steely gaze. Finally Rouge cracked under Shadows cold, emotionless look. "Fine, I got shot by some douchebag hedgehog that was working with the cops," Rouge said, folding her arms and leaning against the wall.

Shadows eyes widened. "You got in trouble with the _police_?" he gasped. Rouge just shrugged.

"If I wasn't, do you think I'd be here right now? I needed a place to stay for a while, so I thought I'd come here," she said. Then she shrugged again and strode forward to sit on Shadow's bed. Shadow felt uneasy having Rouge so close to the Chaos Emerald, but she just smiled. "I saw the emerald when you walked in here. Don't worry, I won't take it. I've got my own anyway," Rouge said.

Shadow went to pick up the Desert Eagle that he had dropped. "You said you got shot by a hedgehog," he said. "What did it look like?"

Rouge thought for a moment. "Well, I couldn't really see that great. It was last night, and there weren't many street lights near. But I know it was a guy, and I think he was orange. He also had two..." Rouge paused to think of the word. "Well, I really have no idea what they were, but there were these two liquid things-"

"Jesus," Shadow muttered, passing a hand over his brow. "I met the bastard, and those things also. Only there were more of them, like an entire army."

Rouge frowned. "He said something to some cop about the Chaos Emerald I stole. He wanted it pretty badly, from the way he was talking," she said.

Shadow drew the red Chaos Emerald from under his bed sheets. "He talked to me," he said.

"The hedgehog?" Rouge asked. Shadow nodded.

"He told me his name, and I don't think he was lying. I can't remember..." Shadow pressed the Chaos Emerald against his forehead and closed his eyes. "Apollo. His name was Apollo," he said after a long pause.

"So he didn't just walk up to you, tell you his name, and then shoot you too, did he?" Rouge asked. She was taken aback by Shadow's seriousness towards the joke.

"No, he talked to me. He said I was different," Shadow snapped. Rouge blinked.

"Different from whom?" she asked slowly.

"Doesn't matter," Shadow muttered. They stood in silence for a while, until Shadow said, "Are you hungry or anything?"

"Hm? Oh, no I ate before I came here," Rouge said. She looked around the bare room and wrinkled her nose in distaste. "You don't have much of a sense of decorations, do you?" she asked.

Shadow snickered. "I had a better place in the Green Forest, but those liquid things came and trashed it," he said.

Rouge drummed her fingers on Shadow's mattress, then stood. "Well, I'm not saying that I'm not having fun just sitting here, but I think I'm gonna go stretch my wings. It'll help them heal anyway," she said. Shadow just shrugged and pointed to the door.

"There's a stairwell out there. Don't be too long, or I'll think the cops found you," he grunted.

Rouge climbed her way up to the roof of the building, which was easier said than done. The staircase seemed to be an infinite upward spiral, so steep that at some times, Rouge thought that she would slip and tumble all the way back down to the bottom.

After about fifteen minutes of labored climbing, Rouge reached the door opening up to the roof of the building. _I wonder if that was worth the climb_, she thought grumpily as she stepped out into the fresh air. Rouge leaned over the rusted guardrail bordering the roof, feeling the cool breeze flow through her fur. Lifting her head upwards, Rouge saw a dark storm cloud from the corner of her eye. Or... was it a cloud? It sure seemed a lot thicker and darker than a normal cloud, as though it were a great black pillow floating high above the edge of Westopolis._ Looks like a storm's coming_, Rouge observed. She had absolutely no idea how much of an understatement that was.

-----

Location: Tails' Workshop

Time Remaining: 11: 38

"So where are we going now?" Tails asked Sonic, skipping alongside the hedgehog. Sonic smiled down at the young fox. Despite being a boy genius, Tails still had the carefree, innocent air of an eight year old to him.

"Well, I was gonna go see how Wave and Storm were doing. We were going to go visit Jet," Sonic said. Tails stopped skipping.

"Oh, yeah," he said slowly. "I kinda..." Tails hesitated.

"You forgot that he died?" Sonic asked. Tails nodded shamefacedly. Sonic made a grim face.

"I know," he said. "I almost miss him calling me up after every race he won just so he could brag. I thought it was annoying back then, but... it was just him," Sonic said.

Tails sighed. "Yeah, I guess," he said. "So does that mean we're going to Angel Island?"

Sonic nodded. Wave and Storm had decided to bury Jet (or at least Jet's empty coffin) at Angel Island, near the shrine of the Master Emerald. Wave had said that it seemed like a good spot. Or at least it _would_ be after the grass and flowers grew back. During the Battle of Angel Island, Knuckles' home island had been set afire, kindling all of the plants and forests across the great floating piece of land.

"Are we taking the _Tornado_, or do you want to run?" Tails asked Sonic. He was hoping that Sonic wouldn't want to go to Angel Island on foot. Sonic might love to run, but Tails would be much more comfortable in the pilot's seat of the _Tornado III_.

Sonic shrugged. "Lets take the _Tornado_. We don't want to go too fast for the Rogues, now do we?" he joked, grinning mildly at Tails. Tails silently breathed a sigh of relief. Sonic and Tails strode up to the small hangar that Tails had built to house the _Tornado_. Sonic blinked as Tails opened up the hangar door. "_That's_ the _Tornado_?" he asked, staring blankly at the battered, burn-mark streaked hull of the cobalt blue fighter sitting sadly in the hangar, half covered by a white sheet.

Tails frowned. "Afraid so," he said slowly.

"What in the world happened to her?" Sonic gasped.

"A few days ago someone broke into here and tried to fly her around. I still don't know who it was, but they apparently crashed her in the woods near here. I managed to restore her. Mostly," Tails said, solemnly gazing at his old mini-fighter.

"Does she still run?" Sonic asked, running his gloved down the edge of the _Tornado's _right wing.

Tails nodded. "Yeah, she works, but..."

Sonic looked up at Tails, his expression serious. "But what?" he asked slowly.

"She can't turn into the _Cyclone_ anymore. I don't know what happened," Tails said. Sonic's eyes softened. He knew how much effort Tails put into his inventions, and the _Tornado_ was no exception. Sonic put his hand on Tails' shoulder.

"Well, it doesn't seem too bad. Just polish it up a bit and it'll be good as new... I mean, it might need a better engine if this one got damaged, but besides the nicks and ash streaks it looks pretty good!" he said. Tails beamed up at his idol.

"You think so?" he asked.

"Sure I do. Come on, we'd better get to Angel Island before the Rogues leave," Sonic said, climbing into the backseat of the _Tornado_. "Are you sure she won't blow up on us or anything?" he asked Tails hesitantly.

Tails climbed into the pilot seat of the _Tornado_ and fired up the engine. "Positive. I think the chances of us getting blown out of the sky are ten to one," he said. Sonic blinked.

"I'd be more comfortable if you'd just said 'no'," he muttered as the _Tornado_ lifted off of the ground.

-----

Location: Angel Island

Time Remaining: 11:00

Sonic hopped out of the _Tornado_ practically the moment him and Tails landed on Angel Island. Tails then realized with mild amusement that Sonic hated flying.

Wave, Storm, and Knuckles were already waiting for them. Knuckles was wearing a purple knit cap and a red sweater to keep out the frigid wind that often hissed across Angel Island. Being unclad save for T-shirts and shorts, Wave and Storm were shivering. Tails was about to jump out when Sonic stopped him. "Not you Tails. The older kids need to be alone," he said.

Tails blinked. "Why?" he asked. He really didn't see what the big deal was. Tails was rather mature for his age, after all.

"Just stay Tails, please?" Sonic pleaded. He didn't want to have to be firm with Tails, and to his relief, his young friend agreed.

Tails sat down in the pilot's seat of the _Tornado_, pulling his tails around him for warmth. He watched as Sonic, Knuckles, and the Rogues walked away, then flipped on the miniature uplink to his home computer that he had installed into his fighter mere days ago. He had yet to test it. Plus, he could study the final fragment of the Egg Mainframe that he had popped into his computer before leaving.

Cracking his knuckles, Tails quickly typed commands in on a mini-keyboard and then hit "Send". He held his breath until a message saying "command confirmed" flashed onto the screen he was looking at. _Alrighty then_, Tails thought, cracking his knuckles. He watched as Eggman's old files flashed across the computer screen. Tails marveled at the amount of data Eggman had been able to house on a single computer disk. Suddenly an enormous heap of data shot across the screen, making static crackle from the small speaker attached to the screen. Tails immediately pressed the "Return" button on the key board, rewinding the disk just enough so the data just began to make static buzz from the speaker. Then Tails clicked the spacebar, slowing the speed that his computer read the disk drastically.

The static suddenly turned into words, and the jumbled data on the screen rearranged itself into words. Then Tails heard the voice of Doctor Ivo Robotnik for the last time.

_"If you are hearing this, then I have either been captured, or worse,"_ Eggman's voice came from the speaker. Curious, Tails leaned forward to hear better. _"I just wanted someone to know that my attack on Angel Island wasn't in my own greed. I admit I can be a bit of a... brute, yes. But I only wished to help this time. And I want to warn someone– anyone who is listening this, that they are in great danger"_. Tails blinked. Danger? What was Robotnik talking about?

_"My satellites have detected a strange... eh, energy, you may say. It is approaching Earth quickly; by my estimates, it will reach Earth in less than a week. I have seen a picture of it, and it closely resembles a large storm cloud. However, by the amount of energy it is giving off, I highly doubt that it is a nova or an exploding star. I have come across this occurrence in history before– of course not at Earth, but other planets... in other _galaxies_. I am afraid that this cloud is a living organism: an alien entity known as Dyamisius. It is a parasite, with abilities ranging from being able to copy any form of DNA it comes in contact with onto other beings, to being able to swallow entire worlds whole. It _eats_ planets, and I'm afraid that it is coming for Earth. In some races, Dyamisius was– _is_, rather, worshiped as a god. It chooses a servant-herald for itself every fifty years, and this herald is meant to travel to each planet ahead of Dyamisius. _

"Now I have read so much Chaos Energy emanating from Dyamisius that I am afraid of what it means. I recognize the pattern in which it flows– it is the same pattern that emanated from Chaos Zero. I fear that Dyamisius has somehow found Chaos and is planning to use it to help Dyamisius in it's plan to destroy Earth. If I have the Master Emerald and combine it with my new invention, I may be able to generate enough neutral Chaos Energy as to cancel out Chaos Zero's Chaos Energy. It is a risky ploy, but it may work. I am counting on whoever finds this to find my machine and the Master Emerald. Please, for Earth. Trust me."

That was where the message ended, leaving Tails speechless in the pilot seat of the _Tornado._

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Author's Note: **Again, sorry for the long update. School just got a little more hectic, and I'm in a few honors classes, which makes it harder to keep up with the updates. Sorry that this chapter isn't as long as others, but I can assure you that the next (and last) two or three chapters will have be mostly action and I'm anxious for everyone to see it... so I hope I haven't lost any of you guys as readers. Hope to see you next update, and as always, please review!


	6. The Return of Chaos Zero

Location: Westopolis

Time remaining: 10: 27

All across the city– no, all across the entire _world_– radios, televisions, and even iPods were going ballistic. Static electricity coursed through all electronics, making sound waver and TV screens wobble and change color. Then as if by magic, everything went back to normal– save for the sound system.

"Ladies, gentleman, all Earth-beings in general," began a flat, robotic voice from all electronics emitting sound waves. "Please remain calm while we secure your cities. We are truthful when we say that we do not wish to harm you. Please remain indoors as well, and refrain from going near the windows or doors. Thank you for your compliance."

People inside rushed to their windows at the sounds of marching feet outside. People already outdoors watched in horror as millions of Chaos Clones appeared as if from nowhere, streaming in from alleys, abandoned buildings, even jumping from rooftops to land on the streets with low plopping sounds. All of the clones culminated into an enormous group onto the streets and began to march aimlessly through Westopolis while the message spread, continuously blaring, "Remain indoors. We do not wish to harm you humans."

A group of curious youths approached a band of Chaos Clones. Vince Aberthany was one of them. "Hey man, what's going on?" he asked one of the Chaos Clones. The clone payed no heed to the young raccoon. Vince scowled and strode right up to the clone fearlessly, despite the fact that it was at least twice his size. "Hey buddy, I just got kicked outta the house by my mom, and I'm pretty pissed so you'd better-"

The Chaos Clone suddenly rounded on Vince and backhanded him with such force that he was hurled backwards at least two yards. Then, as if speaking in the clone's stead, the electronic voice echoed itself once more. "Please believe us, we do not wish to harm any of you Earth-beings. Any attacks by us are your own doing. Remain indoors for the next ten hours."

-----

Shadow was awakened by Rouge slamming the door shut with a loud _bang_. "What?" he groaned, sitting up groggily. Rouge's face was chalk white.

"Do you remember those things I was telling you about? Those liquid monsters?" she said, grabbing the Desert Eagle from the drawer.

Shadow was instantly alert, jumping off of his bead and snatching the gun from Rouge's hands before she could do so much as blink. "That's mine," he said flatly. Then he added, "You were saying?"

Rouge frowned, but continued. "It turns out you were right after all. There's tons of them, and they just started to invade the city," she said. Shadow blinked, then rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

"Sorry, did I hear you right? I thought you said that those blue things started to invade the city," Shadow half yawned, half growled. Rouge nodded.

"You heard me right. They're working their way down the streets, positioning guards in front of all buildings. They want everyone to stay inside for ten more hours," Rouge said. "We need to get out of here before they find out we're here. They could even take the Chaos Emeralds from us."

Shadow said nothing but strode over to the window and peered out between the curtains. To his horror, there were thousands of Chaos Clones marching down the street, arranged perfectly in rows of five. "So? Do you believe me now?" Rouge asked.

Shadow looked uncertain. "I do, but where are we going to go? I don't have any other places," he said.

Rouge thought for a moment. Then a brilliant idea hit her. Why did she come here in the first place when she would have been safer at Tails' Workshop? "Tails," she said. "He's a nice kid. I'm sure he'd welcome even us."

Shadow stared at her blankly. "No," he said after a moment. Rouge blinked, confused.

"Why? It's safer than your shithole of an apartment!" she said defensively. Not saying a word, Shadow turned his pillowcase inside-out and dumped the Chaos Emerald inside out into his hand.

"I can't _stand_ that kid. And if Sonic's there, it will make it even worse," Shadow growled. He looked out the window again, watching the Chaos Clones march down the street, the sunlight glinting off of their liquid skin. Shadow's eyes narrowed. It seemed as though some sort of signal had set all of them off at once.

"Well if you don't want to go, stay here and get killed. I'm leaving without you," Rouge said. "It would have been easier with you since you can use Chaos Control, but maybe you'll need that to save your own ass." She picked up her Chaos Emerald and started for the door.

"Wait," Shadow said emotionlessly. Rouge turned to him, raising her eyebrows expectantly. Shadow sighed. "Fine, I'll go with you," he said. "But on one condition."

Rouge shrugged. "Sure, whatever. What's that condition?" she asked. Shadow turned to her and narrowed his eyes.

"I'm worried about someone. I need to make a quick stop to make sure they're alright."

-----

Location: Cream and Vanilla the Rabbits' residence

Time remaining: 10: 22

Even standing on her tiptoes, Cream still couldn't see what Amy was doing. "Come on, let me see!" she whined finally.

"I never said you couldn't see," Amy chuckled. Cream pouted.

"But you aren't showing it to me either. You've been working on that all day! What is it?" she asked. Amy smiled down at her friend.

"You can fly can't you? So come on up and take a look yourself!" Amy grinned. Cream made a face, but she reluctantly began to flap her ears, hovering up a few feet until she could see what Amy called her "project".

Cream had to admit, it wasn't like anything she had ever seen before. Sitting on the counter top was a pair of shoes. Not just any pair of shoes though. They were had soles made of flexi-steel, finished off with an overcoat of metallic red paint. The shoes themselves were made of black durivinyl bi-weave– one of the strongest synthetic materials on Earth. A white flexi-steel band with a buckle ran horizontally over the top of each sneaker, and engraved into the sole of each was the picture of a gem. Each of the seven facets of the gem shimmered with the colors of the seven Chaos Emeralds.

"_You _made those?" Cream gasped. Amy blushed.

"Well, not completely. I have a cousin that works in a shoe factory, and I asked him to make the pieces in his spare time," she said. "But I added the gem thing on the bottom myself, and I put it together," Amy added hurriedly. She didn't want it to seem as though she didn't do anything to help make the sneakers. Cream frowned.

"Are you going to give those to Mister Sonic?" she asked suspiciously. Amy just shrugged and picked the sneakers up from the counter. Cream sat in silence for a moment, then decided it was time she spoke her opinion on the matter of Amy and Sonic's "relationship".

"Why do you do things for Mister Sonic if he doesn't really... well..." Cream tapered off into silence as Amy looked at her inquisitively.

"He doesn't what?" Amy asked.

"Appreciate you," Cream said almost inaudibly. Amy felt as though she had just been hit in the head with her own Piko Piko hammer. Appreciate her? Amy had never thought of that. She had always just assumed that Sonic was afraid of a serious relationship, that it would disrupt his free-living lifestyle. But was she wrong? Amy looked down at the shoes in her hands and thought, _Is it time for me to let go?_

But she immediately regained her happy exterior image. "Well someone needs these shoes anyway, right? Since Sonic's new ones are real cheap, it'd be best if I just went ahead and gave him these," Amy said cheerily. However, she did not feel cheery at all. Amy realized that it was about time she began to take serious thought on just who she wanted to spend her life with. Sonic, a person who would keep her waiting forever? Or was there someone else out there for her?

Amy was still deep in thought when she ran smack into the six foot liquid mass of Creams new "friend". Amy had seen it somewhere before though. She couldn't place it at the moment, but she had definitely known him, her, or _whatever_ it was.

"Oh, excuse me... um... what's your name again? I think Cream told me, but I can't remember," Amy said. The Chaos Clone stared at her blankly. "Well, see you," Amy said bluntly upon realizing that the clone had no intention of speaking to her. She tried to move past him into the kitchen, where Vanilla was cooking a late breakfast for them.

But to her surprise, the clone moved to block her path. Amy was confused. "Um, excuse me please," she repeated, moving once again to get past the Chaos Zero. This time it didn't move to deter her from getting into the kitchen, but shoved her backwards with one of its oversized arms. Amy stumbled, but she managed to catch hold of the wall to keep her balance. "Hey!" she cried angrily at the Chaos Clone.

Vanilla peered into the hall from the kitchen. "Amy? Is everything alright honey?" she called.

"No, this thing just pushed me!" Amy said, scowling at the clone. Vanilla frowned at the Chaos Zero, then strode out from the kitchen with her hands on her hips.

"Now I like you," she scolded the Chaos Clone, "but if you're planning on staying here, you'll need to use some manners. One of those is to treat a lady with respect–"

The Chaos rounded on Vanilla and grabbed her arm with crushing force. Vanilla gasped in pain as the clone's grip tightened. It stared at her curiously, the way a young boy might stare in wonder at a tongue of flame flickering on the wick of a candle.

Just then someone knocked at the door. Vanilla was about to call for help when the Chaos Clone pushed her violently into the living room. She staggered backwards, then tripped and fell onto the sofa.

"Is anyone here?" a familiar voice called from outside.

"Mommy, Mister Shadow's here!" Cream cried happily. She had just entered the room and was unaware of the Clone's sudden aggressiveness.

"Go open the door Cream," Vanilla said, her voice shaking. Cream began to walk across the room, but the Chaos Clone blocked her path.

"Is everything alright in there?" Shadow called from the other side of the door.

Vanilla managed to shout one word before the Chaos Clone snatched her up and hurled her across the room, "Help!"

Shadow and Rouge glanced at each other after hearing the cry and the resulting _crash_ that came after. Shadow tried the doorknob, but he found that the door was locked. "Dammit!" he muttered.

Amy dropped the sneakers she was holding and rushed for the door– too slowly. The clone stretched his arm out and tripped the pink hedgehog, sending her flying.

"The door's locked!" Rouge shouted.

"No it isn't!" Vanilla cried, kicking the Chaos Zeros hand away from her. Her eyes met the jellylike green eyes of the Chaos Clone, and suddenly Vanilla understood. It had locked the door. It didn't want them to go outside, and it didn't want anyone to come inside either. It would _kill _anyone who tried.

Just as the clone raised its gigantic fist, the door burst off of it's hinges as Shadow kicked it with all his might.

The clone turned to the black hedgehog, utterly surprised that such a small individual could be so strong. The Chaos Zero didn't have time to do anything else, as Shadow raised the Desert Eagle and fired two shots into the clone's liquid body.

It staggered backwards, but seemed to be unhurt by the rounds. Scowling, the Chaos Clone reached into its own stomach and pulled both of the fifty caliber bullets out of the liquid. Shadow blinked, then was struck with an idea. He raised the gun higher and pulled the trigger three more times.

Flames erupted from the muzzle of the Desert Eagle and the Chaos Zeros head snapped backwards as though it had been hit with a sledgehammer. Vanilla watched in shock as blood slowly began to leak from the creature's brain into the liquid surrounding it. One of the bullets had missed, but the other two had gone straight through the gelatin of the Chaos Zeros eyes. Red liquid slowly oozed down the clones face, dripping onto the floor. But it refused to die, staggering forward four more steps. Shadow remained stock still, the gun pointed directly between the creature's eyes. He needed it closer; he didn't want to waste either of the two shots he still had left in the gun. He had no fear. The clone took three more shaky steps, then dropped to the ground dead.

Shadow blinked. "Oh, well that makes it a lot easier," he said, holstering the handgun. Vanilla was paying no attention to him however. The rabbit had her eyes glued to the fallen Chaos Clone laying in the middle of the living room floor.

"Is everyone okay?" Shadow asked, helping Amy to her feet.

Amy shivered, not wanting to look at the dead body sprawled across the floor. "Yeah," she said quietly. "Yeah, I'm fine." their eyes met and Shadow suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable. He realized that he hadn't asked anyone how they felt in a long time, and he had forgotten how to respond to their answer.

"Um, g-good. I guess," he stammered. Vanilla looked in disgust down at the blood and liquid that had oozed from the Chaos Zero onto the carpet.

"I guess I'll need to clean that up," she said slowly. Rouge looked up at her, immediately at attention.

"There isn't any time," she said. "There are more of these things- hundreds of thousands, and they're attacking Westopolis. Shadow remembered your friend and decided to check back in." Rouge reached into her pocket and brushed the sapphire Chaos Emerald with her fingertips. Shadow seemed to have forgotten about her having it, and the last thing she wanted was for him to take it from her.

"We need to get to Tails' workshop. It seems to be the only safe option for now," Shadow said as Amy hurried over to get Sonic's new shoes. Shadow glanced at Rouge and said, "I might be able to use Chaos Control to get us there, but it might take your emerald too Rouge."

Rouge ground her teeth together, but reluctantly handed the gem over to Shadow. "We all need to be touching each other for this to work though," Shadow reminded everyone.

Cream suddenly gasped. "Wait, we can't leave without Cheese!" she cried. Vanilla was still staring at the Chaos Clone as if in a trance.

"Go get him honey, I think we'd better listen to Mister Shadow," she said monotonously. Without a moments hesitation, Cream rushed upstairs and into her room.

"Cheese?" she called softly to the tiny chao sleeping on her bed. Cheese gave a quiet mumble, then rolled over. "Cheese!" Cream said again, louder this time. Cheese's eyes fluttered open and the little creature yawned, opening his mouth so wide that the entire lower half of his face seemed to be a great dark gap. Cream smiled. "Hi honey. I know you're tired, but we have to leave now," she said, straightening her little pet's bow tie. Cheese blinked sleepily, then tilted his head to the side.

"Chao, Chao?" he squeaked. Cream sighed.

"I don't have time to explain, we have to go right now!" she said. Cheese groggily got to his feet, then jumped off of the edge of the bed, catching himself in mid-fall by beating his tiny wings.

"There you go, buddy. Come on!" Cream said, beckoning for the Chao to follow her into the living room.

"Ready?" Shadow asked. Cream nodded, noticing that he had the blue Chaos Emerald tucked under his armpit and the scarlet in his palm. She carefully stepped over to the group, who all had their hands on the Chaos Emerald in Shadows hand. Shadow looked around at everyone, noticing with a strange sense of discomfort that he was the only male in the room besides Cheese. Shadow shook the feeling off, closed his eyes, and with a whisper of, "Chaos Control," they were gone.

-----

Location: Angel Island

Time Remaining: 9: 47

Tails sat in the pilot's seat of the _Tornado_, still not certain whether he should seek out his friends or wait until they returned. Tails checked the digital clock on the _Tornado_'s control panel. It was nine forty-five. _Still pretty early,_ Tails thought. He wrapped his two tails around himself for warmth and hunched his shoulders against the wind. For at least fifteen minutes Tails sat there and read over Eggman's database disc again. _It's incredible_, Tails thought to himself. _I always knew Eggman's satellites must be strong, but I never guessed that they were powerful enough to see through to other _galaxies Tails shivered for reasons other than the cold whenever he thought of Dyamisius. He had met aliens such as the Black Arms before, but even they had seemed remotely human. They could be shot or hurt. But Dyamisius was a _cloud_. How could it be beaten?

Tails' thoughts were cut off by a soft _splash_ off to his right. The kitsune nearly jumped out of his own skin at the sudden noise. He glanced over to where the noise came from, only to find a small pool of crystal clear water amidst newly grown reeds. Tails frowned. Had that pool been there before? Tails didn't remember. Curious, he climbed out of the pilot's seat and dropped to the ground. He cautiously crept over to the pool, hearing his heart thump in his ears. For some reason, Tails was afraid. Suddenly Tails snickered a little. Afraid of what, a puddle of water? He shrugged off the feeling and confidently strode up to the pool, peering into it. Tails raised his eyebrows, admiring how clearly the water reflected his image. It was almost like looking into a liquid mirror. Then he frowned, seeing an area of the water that was a lime green color in contrast to the blue of the rest of the pool. Not even thinking, Tails reached down to touch the green part of the water–

And a hand burst upward from the depths, groping for his wrist with it's soft, clinging grip. Tails leapt backwards with a cry, tripped over a log, and fell onto his backside. The kitsune watched in horror as the glistening green fingers found anchorage in the dirt next to the pool and began to pull. Slowly a head emerged from the depths, soon followed by the rest of a creature's body. It was definitely bipedal, although its back was hunched so low that it dragged its gigantic fists along the ground. Behind its shining blue eyes floated a round mass of grey brain matter, connected to a heart in its chest by a long, spine-like structure that curved along the length of its back.

Chaos-Jet straightened, then lumbered slowly towards Tails, his arms swinging to and fro with each step he took. Tails backpedaled frantically until the back of his head hit the _Tornado_'s hull with a low _thunk_. Chaos-Jet was now merely a yard away from Tails, now two feet, now one.

Tails rolled to the side with a yelp of fear and began to run, only to be caught by the ankle and dragged back to the _Tornado_. Chaos-Jet hurled Tails onto the wing of the fighter with such force that it rocked to the side, dangerously close to tipping over. Tails groaned in pain and rolled onto his back to look up at his attacker.

Chaos-Jet furiously slammed both fists against the fighter's hull and thrust his face right in front of Tails' face, his eyes glowing with rage. The fox felt a slow whisper of air rush across his sweaty face, despite the fact that Tails couldn't either feel or hear the monster breathing. Tails did the first thing that came to mind.

"Um, hello," he said blankly. Now Chaos-Jet actually made a noise: he snorted, much as a bull does before it charges someone in all of it's fury. "Uh, yeah, hi. My name is Prower Tails– I– I mean Tails Prower– wait, no. My name's Miles Prower, but... um, most of my friends just call me Tails. 'Cause I have two Tails, see? It's kind of a deformity, but–"

Chaos-Jet tossed his head angrily and began to beat the wing of the _Tornado_ with one massive fist. "Whoa! You'll break that. Just to let you know, please don't do that," Tails said. Tails stopped talking as he saw the waters of the pool that Chaos-Jet emerged from begin to seethe and bubble furiously. Slowly, ten more Chaos Clones oozed forth from the puddle, leaving less liquid in the pool each time. Hearing a rustle behind him, Tails turned around to see at least twenty more Chaos Zeros clambering over the edge of Angel Island. Tails smiled timidly at Chaos-Jet. "So," he said slowly, "which one of you is the original? You know, since Dyamisius can copy DNA and all that..."

Chaos-Jets gelatinous eyes narrowed as he pulled back his gigantic fist, ready to strike the blow that would kill the tiny kitsune laying in front of him.

Tails cringed and threw his arms over his face, knowing with terrible certainty that it wouldn't do a thing to protect him. He waited for the crushing pain, but it never came. When Tails opened his eyes, Chaos-Jet was staring into the charred remains of the Angel Island forest. He looked to his fellow Chaos Clones, then nodded towards the forest. They obediently followed him, none even glancing at Tails as they passed him by. But before Chaos-Jet disappeared into the forest, he turned and gave one last knowing look at Tails.

Tails watched in amazement until he could no longer see any of the clones. Not moving an inch from where he now lay on the badly dented wing of the _Tornado_, Tails reached for the ignition button and punched it with his thumb. "Holy shit," he murmured.

-----

Sonic examined his sneakers with disgust. They had looked pretty well made when he first bought them, but after only a few days of running, they had started to pull apart at the seams. Oh well. They just didn't make things like they used to. The blue hedgehog looked up at Wave, who was still working on her extreme gear. Wrenches of all different sizes were strewn around her, and she had flipped open a panel on the underside of her magenta colored board. Sonic guessed that it was Waves way of coping with her problems. "So..." Sonic said slowly, looking around to see if Storm and Knuckles had returned from what was supposed to be a short check-up on the Master Emerald. Knuckles had insisted.

Wave looked up at him. "So, what?" she asked. Sonic realized from the swallows voice that he needed to choose his words carefully.

"Oh, nothing. Just wondering if you wanted to race or anything," Sonic said as nonchalantly as he could. Wave stared at him for a moment, then went right back to work on her hover-board.

"Not right now. Maybe later though," she said. Sonic sighed and looked around at the floating island.

_'Maybe' means no_, he thought to himself. He didn't dare say it though. They were in the middle of Angel Islands forest. Or at least what was left of the forest. Half of it had been burnt away by Eggman and his robots during the attack. Sonic whistled softly to himself while pretending to be interested in the sky. _Well, it could be worse. Amy could be here_, Sonic thought.

Suddenly Sonic felt something vibrate in his pocket. Sonic frowned and reached into his pocket, taking out a cell phone that Tails had retrofitted so that it could get a signal anywhere in the world. "Yo," the hedgehog said, answering the call.

"Um, hey Sonic, I think we should get out of here," Tails' voice came through the line. Sonic frowned.

"Why? What's the matter?" he asked. Wave looked up from her Extreme Gear.

"Who's that?" she asked without much curiosity in her voice.

"Tails," Sonic said. He turned around and spoke quietly into the phone, not wanting to alarm Wave. "What's going on? You sound jittery," Sonic said.

"I am. It's Chaos Zero, you remember him?" Tails asked frantically. Sonic frowned. Tails was breathing heavily, and Sonic could hear the sound of an engine gunning in the background.

"How could I forget," Sonic muttered, passing a hand over his eyes. It seemed so long ago since Tikal and Chaos had disappeared into the sky. But then again, it might have been long ago. Was it? It was strange that Sonic couldn't remember.

"Are you listening to me?" Tails cried over the line.

Sonic blinked. "Oh? Sorry, I spaced out for a sec. What was that?"

"It's back," Tails said. "It's back, and for some reason, it seems mad again." Sonic thought for a moment, processing what Tails had just said. One of his most powerful enemies had returned suddenly, and Tails was saying something else now. "We have to leave _now_. I just started up the _Tornado_, I'm coming to pick you guys up," the kitsune said hurriedly.

"You still haven't told me what the rush is. Sure, Chaos is strong, but all of us together can– " Sonic stopped in mid sentence.

"It's worse," Tails said. "There's more than one Chaos now. At least a hundred, and I think they're coming for you guys."

Sonic even stopped breathing for a moment. He didn't doubt what Tails had just said. "Got it, just let us get Knuckles and Storm and we'll skedaddle," the hedgehog wheezed.

"_What?_ What do you mean you need to get–" Tails' voice abruptly silenced as Sonic snapped the cell phone shut.

"Come on, we have to find Storm and Knucklehead," Sonic said to Wave, pocketing the phone and grabbing her wrist. Wave blinked.

"Why? They should be back in about five minutes, then we'll go," she said. Sonic just shook his head.

"We don't have time, we have to get them now," he stated simply. He held onto her wrist, and before she could utter a word of protest, they were speeding across Angel Island, heading towards the shrine of the master Emerald. After only moments of running, Sonic skidded to a stop at the ancient steps of the great emeralds shrine. But the Master Emerald wasn't in its place.

"Could you please tell me what that was about, hedgehog?" Wave asked, brushing dust off of her Extreme Gear, which she had somehow managed to hold on to during the rush to get to the other side of the island.

Sonic wasn't listening. "They're gone," he whispered. "It's not here. Where'd they take it?"

"What are you talking about?" Wave asked, frowning.

"The emerald! It's gone, see? Either Knuckles took it , or..." Sonic trailed off. Chaos Zero had returned home, so naturally it would come back to take the Master Emerald. But if they had taken it, then Angel Island wouldn't be suspended in the air still. So it was somewhere still on the island. Sonic whipped out the his phone and quickly typed in the _Tornado_'s speaker code.

"Yeah? You ready?" Tails' voice came after a moment of static.

"Not yet. Tails, I need you to scan the island with the _Tornado_'s thermal scanners, we need to find Knuckles and Storm.

"Just a sec," Tails said. Sonic could hear the faint clicking noise of a keyboard being typed upon, then Tails said, "Oh, this isn't good. There's a few cold sources heading towards you two. I think I see Storm and Knuckles, just stay on the phone and I'll guide you to them."

"Got it. Go for it Tails," Sonic said, gesturing for Wave to get on her Extreme Gear. She reluctantly did so, despite the fact that she still had no idea what was happening.

"Okay, I think you're facing the right direction, run forward and I'll tell you when to stop," Tails said. Sonic was impressed at how collected the young fox seemed. He did as he was told, moving forward with Wave following closely behind on her Extreme Gear. Soon they came to one of the small forests that peppered the island in green. They wove through the trees, ducked under vines, and leapt over gorges (flew in Wave's case). Tails consistently assured them that they were getting closer and closer to their echidna and albatross friends, and Sonic trusted him. Suddenly Tails said, "Right there, stop." Sonic skidded to a halt, only to have Wave collide hard with him from behind. Both of them flew through the air, landing with a low _thump_ next to a rotted tree stump with a fairly large crack in its base. Sonic was about to curse when he thought he heard voices hissing up from the crack.

"Well that was brilliant, tell me when you're going to just stop next time," Wave scoffed.

"Shush," Sonic said, leaning forward. Peering down into the dank cave under the tree, Sonic called out, "Hello? Anyone down here?"

The hedgehog heard his voice echo down the shaft, until another voice, a friendly, familiar one, answered him. "Sonic? That you?" Knuckles called up from the darkness.

"Knucklehead? How'd you get down there?" Wave gasped, hearing the echidna.

"How do you think? We climbed down. This tunnel must go down to the underside of the island, I don't think it's going to end very soon," Knuckles called up.

"We? That means Storm's there too?" Wave asked, shoving Sonic aside.

"I'm okay," Storms voice floated up. "I'm kinda s-stuck but I'm okay."

"Do you have the Master Emerald with you? We went to the shrine and it wasn't there," Sonic said before Wave could continue her conversation with Storm.

"Yep, I got it right here. Sonic, I need to tell you something very important," Knuckles began. Suddenly Sonic heard Tails screaming from the phone, which he had left in the dirt when he had fallen.

"Get down there guys, they're coming!" Tails cried. Sonic had no need to ask who Tails meant by 'they'. He remembered suddenly the silhouettes in the lightning last night at Tails' workshop. He had know it then. He had known it was Chaos, but he just didn't want to believe it.

To Sonic's utter horror though, Knuckles and Storm had already climbed out of the tree stump, and Knuckles was wiping mud off of the Master Emerald with distaste. He seemed to have lost his woolen cap. Sonic swiped up the phone from the ground and pushed Wave down towards the tree cave. "Get back down there you idiots, they're coming!" Sonic hissed.

Knuckles looked astounded. "You know about the Chaos Zeros?" he asked. Sonic just nodded and climbed down into the crack, followed closely by Storm. Knuckles reached for the Master Emerald, but Storm quickly grabbed him by the back of the shirt, dragging him down into the cave along with the others. "Are you crazy? I have to get the emerald, let go!" Knuckles cried.

"I can't th-the-they–" Storm began, but he shut up as they heard feet crunching over leaves. Knuckles, who was the only one of the group that was visible, even if it was only partially, shrank as far back into the shadows of the tree as he could. Two pairs of glistening, wet feet appeared in front of the stump, obscuring Knuckles' view of the Master Emerald. The echidna muttered a curse under his breath. It was barely a murmur, but one of the clones must have heard it, because one of the pairs of feet stopped shuffling about and froze, as though listening. Two lime green hands reached down and picked up the Master Emerald. The Chaos Clone holding it must have been studying it with great interest, because it didn't move for quite some time. Suddenly it dropped the emerald, whirled around, and punched into the tree stump, grasping Knuckles by the throat.

"Knuckles!" Wave cried, reaching up to grab Knuckles. The green Chaos Clone who was grappling with him stopped at the sound of Waves voice. For a moment it seemed to be remembering something, but then it lifted Knuckles clean out of the shattered remains of the tree stump. Storm yelped with fear as four Chaos Clones lunged at them. He instinctively let go of the tunnel sides, and since he was the person at the top of the tunnel, his bulk forced everyone else down with him. The three helplessly slid down the tunnel, screaming, kicking each other, and accidentally swallowing entire mouthfuls of dirt when they finally began to truly _fall_. Sonic realized that Knuckles was right– the tunnel did lead all the way to the underside of Angel Island. Sonic, Wave, and Storm were now in free fall in the sky. Even plummeting at sixty miles per hour and gaining fast, Wave was the first to recover her senses. She grasped her Extreme Gear in both hands and set her feet into the magnetized foot-anchors on the deck of the board. Spinning around in midair, she helped Storm, who was struggling to climb onto his _Type-S_ Extreme Gear. When he was successfully locked in place, Wave pivoted on her board to catch Sonic, who was the only one of them who didn't have a way of stopping his fall. As soon as Sonic climbed onto Wave's board, he looked up and said, "We have to go back and get him."

Wave laughed. "Oh, no we're not. At least I'm not risking my life for red mutt anyway," she said.

Sonic scowled at her, then with shaking hands, reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, amazed that it hadn't fallen out when they had slipped from the bottom of the island. "Tails?" he called into it.

"I'm here. I'm coming down there to get you," Tails said rigidly. Sonic looked off to his right and saw a quickly approaching dot. At it came closer, Sonic realized that it was in fact the _Tornado_. It slowed as it passed Wave, and carefully timing himself, Sonic leapt into the copilot's seat of the blue fighter. He sighed at the feeling of something relatively stable under him.

"I hate those things," Sonic muttered. Then he instantly sat upright in the seat. "Knuckles is still up there. We need to go get him out of there," Sonic said. To his surprise, Tails shook his head solemnly.

"Look at these sensors. There's hundreds of those things all over the island. It's too dangerous," Tails said.

Sonic gaped at his little brother, the boy that was always so optimistic and bright. "_What?_ Well we can't just leave him there to die!" Sonic cried.

Tails quickly glanced at the sensors. "They aren't killing him Sonic. I don't know what they're doing, but the scanner shows that his life signs are fine. We can find help later, but now we just have to get some where safe," he said.

Sonic looked back at the island as though his gaze could defeat every Chaos Clone on it. He wanted to go back, but at the same time, he knew that Tails was right. They couldn't get Knuckles back. Not now, not yet. He slumped back in the chair and closed his eyes, letting Tails lead them away from Angel Island.

-----

Knuckles was flung through the air, slamming into a tree trunk with such force that the entire tree shook. But despite the pain, the wily echidna was at his feet in a heartbeat, determined to protect the Master Emerald. Chaos-Jet lumbered forward, his blue eyes glistening in the late morning sunlight. Knuckles placed his feet apart and hunched his shoulders into a fighting stance that gave him both protection and the ability to move freely. Catching sight of one of the Chaos Clones picking up the Master Emerald, Knuckles charged at Chaos-Jet, feigned a low jab to his stomach, and punched him in the side of the head. Chaos-Jets head snapped sideways as he was flung aside by the sheer power of the blow.

Knuckles leapt into the air, flipped over two clones who attempted to tackle him, and drop-kicked another Chaos Zero behind him. Snatching up his ancestral emerald, Knuckles began to run as fast as his legs could carry him. From nowhere, dozens of Chaos Clones leapt at him, attempting to crush Knuckles into the ground with their liquid weight. Knuckles skidded to a halt and went back the way he came, only to be swatted aside by a very angry Chaos-Jet. Dropping the Master Emerald to give him more fighting ability. Knuckles saw the other Chaos Zeros standing in a circle around them, watching in anticipation. The echidna knew now that it was one-on-one: the green clone versus him.

Knuckles ducked as Chaos-Jet swung his gigantic fist at him. He tensed his powerful leg muscles and tackled Chaos-Jet to the ground, holding onto his enemies throat with all his strength. Chaos-Jet regarded Knuckles cooly for a moment, then in two fluid motions he kicked Knuckles off of him and sprang to his feet. Stars exploded in Knuckles' line of vision as his head connected hard with a rock jutting from the dirt. He groaned and tried to get up, but felt Chaos-Jets watery foot on top of his back, pressing his face back into the dirt. Knuckles thought he was going to die. No, he _knew_ he was going to die. He had never been so sure of anything else in his life. This thing was going to kill him right here.

But he didn't. Instead, Chaos-Jet looked out at the sky where Wave, Storm, and the _Tornado _had disappeared. Then Chaos-Jet leaned down to the bruised and bloodied Knuckles until their faces were almost touching. It might have been the fact that Knuckles was only half conscious, but Knuckles thought that the clone whispered something to him.

_"You help us find them"_

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Author's note:** Oh my God! An update! I thought I'd died. I know this chapter was long, but if it didn't bore you enough so that you skipped a huge chunk of it, I thank you! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, please review!


	7. Preparations

**Location: Chaotix Detective Agency, Central City **

Time Remaining: 9:01

Vector was still snoring loudly on the couch when he heard Charmy scream. At first he thought that it was just his ears playing tricks on him, as the sound seemed rather far off. Then he could swear he heard Espio, cursing at the bee and shouting his name. But the chameleon, like Charmy, seemed to be some distance away. Vector sat up, rubbing his eyes. What time was it? God, it must have been almost noon The sunlight was streaming clearly into the apartment through the closed window blinds. Vector blinked and shook his head. On top of the screaming, the crocodile also heard a low thrumming noise that seemed to be surging through the entire room.

Moving as quickly as his sleepy reptilian body would allow him to, Vector rolled off of the couch, pulled on a once-worn pair of jeans, and ate a cold slice of pizza from the _Pizza Lady_ box sitting on the table. Tugging on a Green Bay Packers jersey, Vector unlocked the apartment door and stepped out into the hall. Being careful not to wake the Chaotix' landlord, who lived in the fancier apartment down the hall, Vector hurried down the stairwell and rushed outside. To his bewilderment, Central City was dead quiet. Not even the sound of a car could be heard.

Suddenly the sun seemed to be blotted out, as though a solar eclipse were happening. _That's not right, the next eclipse must be in years!_ Vector thought. He turned around slowly as the ground began to tremble. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets at the sight he was faced with. A gigantic storm cloud was steadily approaching, though Vector could feel no wind current in the air. The crocodile heard footsteps hurrying towards him from behind, but he found it impossible to tear his eyes away from the cloud.

"Come on Vector, we have to get inside!" Espio's voice came as the footsteps stooped next to him. Now Vector did look down.

"Where's Charmy?" he asked.

"Right here. I was trying to get Espio to play handball, but all he wanted to do was sit out here and meditate," Charmy said, buzzing next to Espio.

"Come _on!_" Espio shouted, tugging at Vector and Charmy's arms. At first Vector didn't realize why the chameleon was in such a rush; after all, a little rain never hurt reptiles. Then he saw the underside of the cloud. Blood red bolts of lightning seemed to be surging upwards from the ground, and every patch of ground that the bolts leapt up from lost its color. Grass blackened and turned to dust, a car was melted into oblivion, and an entire basketball court was ripped up from the ground.

"Holy..." Vector gasped. Charmy was screaming at the top of his lungs, and Espio stood stock still, his lips pressed into a thin line.

"_What do we do?_ Oh God, it's the end of the world, the aliens are invading just like in Superman number six hundred eight-" Charmy's screams of terror were cut short as Vector caught hold of his antennae, dragging him forward. Espio and Vector, who was towing the bee along with them, frantically hurried into the apartment building, slamming the door shut behind them. Outside, the low humming noise that had proceeded since Vector awoke turned to a deafening roar.

"Is it too late for me to ask what's happening?" Vector shouted over the din.

"Go ahead, you know as much as we do!" Espio returned angrily. The trio screamed simultaneously as the circular window above the door shattered. Vector seriously almost lost it. He was proud to say that in all the years of his detective work, he had never been scared, not even of a murderer. But this wasn't a murderer. What was it? He had no clue. Definitely not a tornado, but it had the characteristics of one. Wind whipped into the room, tearing at his clothes and threatening to wrench Charmy out of his grasp. _Think Vector, think! They look to you for support, you should know what to do! _Vector realized that he really _should_. After all, he spent the first ten years of his life in Kansas, and had experienced a few major storms. What had they done then? They had locked the doors, boarded the windows a day earlier, and then huddled up in the cellar-

Vectors eyes widened. That was it! The basement of the building! "Come on!" Vector shouted to Espio. Charmy howled in pain as the two reptiles dragged him down a flight of cracked cement stairs and into the basement of the building. Vector hurriedly slammed the door shut behind him just as the wind, or something much more powerful than the wind, tore through the front door of the building. Espio and Vector stumbled through the darkness until the chameleon found the light switch and flicked it on. The wooden door rattled dangerously in its hinges, and all three of the Chaotix knew that it would not hold for much longer if they didn't support it somehow. "We need to barricade the door!" Vector shouted over the noise coming from the buildings upper floors.

Espio stumbled around the cramped, dimly lit room looking for something-anything, that was heavy enough to keep the door from being ripped from the doorframe. There was nothing. At least there was nothing in Espio's eyes. But Vector spotted something that Espio passed by. "Hold the door!" he shouted to Espio.

"What? I can't–" Espio began.

"_Do it!_" Vector shouted violently. Espio frowned. This was the second time in less than a week that Vector had raised his voice among the company of the Chaotix, and he knew not to argue, especially at a moment like this. The chameleon threw himself against the door, digging his sneakers into the flat cement floor to try and support it. When his crocodile counterpart let go of the doorknob, Espio quickly realized that this was a job for Vector, not him. But just when he thought that he could hold it no longer, when the wind howled louder than all other noises and the door began to bend inward, Espio was shoved out of the way. For the split second that Espio left the door to hold on its own, the door latch snapped and the entire door swung wide open, allowing a thick, black smoke to billow into the room and winds to howl through the tiny space, tearing at the trio's clothes. In the next second, Vector had laid hold of the door, slammed it shut, and hurled a storage case up against it, jamming both ends against the walls of the cellar.

Exhausted, Vector slumped to the floor, not realizing that he was still clutching Charmy by the antennae. "You can let go of me now Vector," the bee said, his voice thin and strained.

"Sorry buddy," said the crocodile as he released Charmy from his death-grip.

"Thank you," Charmy said, rubbing the top of his head gingerly. The Chaotix sat in silence for quite some time, listening to the steady roar of the storm passing overhead. "I'm hungry," Charmy said at length. Vector looked around at the items that had fallen from the shelf of the storage case and picked up a can of peaches.

"How 'bout these?" he asked tiredly. Charmy shrugged and took the can from Vector. Luckily it was the kind of can with the cap on the lid, and he had no problem popping the lid off.

"So how long are we gonna stay down here?" Charmy asked after gulping down one of the peaches. Espio and Vector looked at each other, worried. Vector was about to speak when the rumbling noise overhead suddenly began to fade away.

Vector jumped to his feet and leaned through the storage case against the wall, pressing an ear to the door. "Is it going away?" Espio asked impatiently after a few moments.

"Sshh!" Vector hissed, putting a finger to his scaly lips. Soon the noise returned to its previous humming intensity, then faded altogether away. Vector hesitantly stepped back from the door, not certain of what to do next.

"Well? Let's go up and check it out!" Charmy said excitedly. Moving as though against his will, Vector wrenched the storage case away from the door and opened it slowly.

The Chaotix didn't quite know what to think of what they saw. The entire apartment building had been leveled to the ground. The cement stairs leading down into the cellar were completely covered in rubble, and Espio and Vector both had to struggle to climb out of the pit that the stairwell had become. Charmy took the liberty of flying out of the stairwell. When Vector finally pulled himself out of the pit, he found that both Espio and Charmy were struck speechless.

"It's only our apartment guys. We'll find a new place to stay," he said, trying to be cheerful, even in the terrible situation they were in.

"It's not that Vector," Espio said. Vector looked up to find that the cloud had not passed over them. Actually it seemed to have expanded further across the city, and the Chaotix could faintly make out red flashes of light winking over the city. "The lightning's only coming down at the edge of the cloud," Espio observed quietly.

"What does that mean?" Charmy asked after a long pause. Vector frowned and looked at the rubble around them.

"It means Mister Dourif must not have been able to get out," he observed sadly, remembering sneaking through the hall to avoid waking the landlord.

"Some tornado, I mean cripes," Espio muttered, rubbing the back of his neck fretfully. Vector noticed that the chameleon had turned a shade of vomit-green, and that wasn't a good thing.

"That wasn't a tornado. Whatever it was, it was way worse. Tornados don't make grass black," Vector said, motioning towards the small patch of shriveled black grass that used to be the buildings garden.

"Holy crap!" Charmy squealed.

"Charmy," Vector said sternly, and the bee quickly covered his mouth. Vector was suddenly overcome with a sense of hopelessness. All these years he had been there for his friends, he had known what to do. But now he was lost. Their home was gone, they had no money, and now some kind of expanding cloud of pollution was poisoning the Earth.

"What should we do?" Charmy asked. Vector blinked. this was the question he had spent the last five minutes fortifying himself against, and it still hit him like a punch in the face. His brain had no words for his mouth to use... but by God, he was a detective at heart, and his heart gave him the words to say.

With a toothy crocodile grin, Vector said, "Do what we do best. If this is a case, let's get to the bottom of it."

Espio and Charmy exchanged glances. Espio looked skeptical for a second, but then shrugged with an "if you say so" kind of attitude. "So where should we start first?" Charmy asked, cracking his knuckles.

Vector tapped his chin, thinking for a moment. Then an idea hit him. "We live on the outskirts of Central City, don't we?" he asked his gang.

Espio frowned. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Vector grinned broadly and looked out to the skyscrapers towering over the city. "Boys," he said, "how'd you like to visit the White House?"

-----

Location: Tails' Workshop

Time Remaining: 8: 29

Tails and Sonic were lucky to land the _Tornado _when they did, because it ran out of fuel just as they landed in Tails' miniature hangar. Exhausted from stress, Tails dragged himself forward and laid his palm on the hand print scanning doorlock. The door swung open and Sonic glumly entered, flicking the lights on. He screamed, seeing a dark figure standing at Tails' computer. "Oh, Jesus! Shadow, you scared me!" Sonic cried, laying a hand on his chest.

"Why so jumpy?" a disheveled Shadow asked, turning to face the quartet. Tails frowned.

"Wait a minute, how'd you get in here?" the kitsune asked, scratching his head.

"The window," Shadow replied, shrugging.

"But..." Tails looked baffled as he said, "I thought I locked all the windows. I didn't want any of my things to get stolen!"

"You did lock the windows. That's why I had to break one of them," Shadow said, pulling the chair out from Tails' computer desk and sitting in it.

"What?" Tails cried. "Why did you do that? I have to pay to get those fixed now!"

Shadow was as emotionless as a rock. "You're the one who locked the door," he said flatly. Sonic, Storm, and Wave turned to Tails simultaneously, anticipating his answer.

"For good reason! I didn't want people like _you_ to get in here," Tails muttered. Then he looked around, confused. "Shouldn't the burglar deterring robot have stopped you?" he asked.

"Why? Should it have?" Shadow asked, nodding towards a metal dome on wheels resting in the corner. It had five fist-sized bullet holes punched through its mirrored surface.

Not wanting to start an argument, Sonic patted Tails on the shoulder and said, "You're a smart kid Tails, we can build you a new one. He looked up at Shadow and frowned. "So what are you doing here?" Sonic asked.

"We didn't have anywhere else to go," Shadow explained stiffly. He was obviously unhappy about being where he was at the moment.

"Wait, who do you mean by 'we'?" Sonic asked. He was answered by a familiar squeal from the other room.

"Oh, yay! Sonic's here!" Amy's voice floated into the room. Sonic stood stock still.

"Oh, no. Amy's here," he groaned. Amy came tearing into the room with a shoebox clutched in her hands. "What's that f- _oof!_" Sonic wheezed as Amy practically slammed into him.

"Sonic, look at this! Look, look! I noticed that your new shoes wouldn't last long, so I took the liberty and..." the pink hedgehog released Sonic and paused dramatically before opening the shoebox. "Ta da! These should last you for years, even at the rate you run at!" Amy said.

Sonic blinked at the black and red shoes in the box. They didn't look all like any of the other gifts that Amy had sent him in the past. Those were always colored pink, or adorned with white and yellow flowers. Sonic didn't like flowers much, especially when they were from a girl obsessed over him. But he had always been a good sport, thanking her and smiling. But these... these looked _cool_. Nothing girly. Nothing prettied up. Just shoes, and good looking ones at that. "Wow. These are great!" Sonic said, forgetting everything in an instant. He lifted the sneakers out of the box, examining the Chaos Emerald insignia on their soles.

"Try them on, I want to see if they fit!" Amy squealed happily. He liked them! He actually liked them! He genuinely grinned as he kicked off his battered red and white shoes and easily slipped on the new ones.

"They're shock absorbing too! Kick something as hard as you can!" Amy said, grinning. Obeying, Sonic lifted his foot and smashed it into the floor as hard as he could. The shoes inner lining was made of a heavy duty, yet miraculously lightweight foam that allowed both air passage to the feet and the ability to absorb the shock of slapping against the ground. Although this material wasn't usually tested by smashing the shoe into a cement floor, it was tough enough to handle the shock waves. The floor cracked under the force of the blow, but nothing happened to Sonic's foot. A broad grin spread across his face. "I hardly felt a thing!" he laughed happily.

"Great, just bust up my floor too. While the Rogues are here, why don't you guys smash my computer?" Tails said bitterly. Sonic blinked.

"Oh, sorry there buddy," he said, smiling apologetically at the kitsune. Storm, rather befuddled by Tails' comment, moved towards the computer. Wave touched his arm and shook her head.

Vanilla and Cream stepped into the room to see what was causing all the commotion. "Oh! Hello there, everyone!" Vanilla said, smiling nervously at the crowd. Cream curtseyed politely.

"Um, Hi," Tails said, confused to see them there. "Are you guys here with Shadow?"

"Me too. Don't make Shadow the big hero of the hour," Rouge said, stepping from the dark kitchen with a yogurt in hand.

Tails groaned. "You're eating my food too? If Cheese is here, I hope he hasn't been messing with my stuff!" he cried. As if on cue, there came a loud _clang_ of machinery in the corner as a tool cabinet was tipped over. The chao's small head poked up out of the pile of inventions, followed closely by its body.

Tails' jaw dropped in horror. "My things!" He managed to choke out. Cheese shook his head, then groggily fluttered into the air. Cream squealed in fear and rushed to her little friends aid, but Cheese merely smiled and clapped his hands.

The group stood in silence for a while, then Tails said, "Well, is anyone going to offer to help pick that up?"

"Don't you have a cleanup robot or something? 'Cause you have a machine for everything else," Rouge said, shooting both the yogurt cup and spoon into the sink as though she were playing basketball.

"No," Tails said, grinding his teeth together. He angrily stomped over to the mess and began to put the twisted machinery back into the tool cabinet.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Shadow said suddenly, leaping up from the chair.

"What?" Tails asked, untangling a jumble of wires from some sort of control fuse.

"What's that?" Shadow asked, pointing to an arm-like machine that appeared to be some form of artificial limb. Tails just shrugged.

"Oh, I don't think this would work. I haven't tested it yet," he said. He moved to put it back in the tool cabinet when Shadow snatched the device from Tails hands. "Don't break it!" Tails cried.

"What's it for?" Shadow asked.

"It's only for injured people," Tails muttered, reaching for the mechanical arm.

"In case you haven't noticed, he _is_ injured," Rouge said distantly, crossing her arms and leaning against a wall.

Tails considered this for a moment, then relinquished and let Shadow keep the mechanical appendage. "Here, let me show you how it works," the fox boy said. "Take your sling off." Shadow reluctantly did as he was told, removing his broken arm from its sling and unwrapping the layers of gauze that had been tied around it. "Now let me see that thing, I know how to use it right," Tails said, taking the robotic limb from Shadow. He unscrewed a sort of cap from the end of the arm, then held it out straight. "I need you to put your arm in there," Tails commanded Shadow.

"What? No way. I don't even know what that thing is for yet," Shadow said, frowning suddenly.

"It's safe, I know it. I can't tell you exactly what it does," Tails responded. Then he added slyly, "but I can show you." Shadow hesitated for a moment, then lifted his broken left arm with his right and placed it inside the robotic appendage. "Good, now hold still for just a second," Tails said, clicking a small metallic switch into place.

Shadow jumped slightly as the cold metal arm tightened around his flesh and blood one. The alloy of the machine thinned and seemed to conform to the exact size and shape of Shadow's arm, and the black hedgehog felt the rough edges of his broken bones chafe together, bringing his limb perfectly into its proper position. "Woah," was all Shadow could manage to say.

"Now don't move one bit. This'll feel kind of weird," Tails warned. Shadow opened his mouth to speak, but not before metal pins clamped over his elbow, digging past his quills, through the skin and into his humerus.

"Done! Feel anything now?" Tails asked. Shadow scowled, and was about to spit the foulest curse he knew at Tails when he realized something. His arm felt better than it had before. The pins had hurt for only a moment, but now they felt just like any other part of his body.

"How did you do that?" Shadow gasped in awe.

"If it works right, you should be able to work your arm just fine now," Tails said, his grouchiness suddenly disappearing at his invention's success. Shadow slowly bent his arm, then flexed his fingers, then rotated his shoulder. His arm was perfect- no, it was much, much better than perfect. He felt as though his left arm were at least eight times stronger than his right.

"So? What do you think of it?" Tails asked eagerly. Shadow regarded his new arm with great interest, then made a fist with his smooth, metallic hand.

"Do you have any black spray paint?" he asked Tails curiously.

-----

Location: Grand Metropolis

Time Remaining: 8: 15

"Here's a fact for you my friend," said a distant voice. It sounded thick and muffled, as though it were coming from underneath some depths of water, but as Knuckles the Echidna's vision came back into focus, the sounds of a great commotion about him began to become clearer. He slowly raised his head to meet the icy gaze of a pair of cold, blue eyes. "All creatures experience pain differently than others," Apollo the Hedgehog said, brushing an invisible smudge on his glove off onto the echidna's shoulder. "How or why, I don't exactly know," continued Apollo, pacing back and forth in front of Knuckles.

Knuckles tried to move his arms, but they felt as though they were as heavy as lead. Craning his neck backwards, he could see that he was tied to a regular office chair with heavy-duty chains. The wheels on the chair had been removed to relieve Knuckles of any freedom of movement at all. "But my theory is that different organisms nerves are more or less responsive to the body's fifth sense, which is touch. Do you agree?" Apollo asked.

Knuckles found that he couldn't speak. His lips were held tightly together by his own powerful jaw muscles. "I know you cannot really speak at the moment; the drugs that the doctors gave you are more effective than I thought they would be," the orange hedgehog said, the corner of his mouth twitching. The two animals' eyes connected, and they spent moments staring each other down, until Knuckles finally had to look away. He just couldn't stand that icy glare any longer.

Apollo smirked with smug satisfaction as he pulled his own chair forward. Knuckles realized that they were in a fairly large sized office conference room with fluorescent lights and cheap polyester carpeting. "Now let me tell you what I'm offering, Knuckles," said Apollo conversationally. "If you can tell me where to find your friends, I shall let you go free. Simple as that. No tricks, nothing. I will even return the Master Emerald to its proper owner."

Knuckles grew alert at this point. The Master Emerald. Where was it? Knuckles struggled to move, but no matter how hard he tried, his arms wouldn't budge. Apollo seemed to smile in spite of himself.

"Don't strain yourself, you might pop a blood vessel. It could make the blood rush to your brain, make you forget where your precious friends are. We don't want that, now do we?" Apollo asked, tilting his head to the side.

Knuckles let out a pitiful grunt that he had intended on being a cry for help. Apollo bared his teeth in a grin and said, "It's alright Knuckles, go ahead and scream. They're expecting that." Knuckles eyes slowly traveled to the right wall, where there was a heavy metal door. Two Chaos Clones stood in front of it, and Knuckles could see that two more human SWAT officers were standing outside through a square window in the door.

Apollo sighed and strode over to one wall, where an assortment of knives, syringes, and pliers hung. "Now I know I'm supposed to ask nicely first, but I think I'll have a little fun with you beforehand," the orange hedgehog said. Knuckles eyes widened as Apollo took a knife with a grisly looking curved blade down from the wall.

As Knuckles looked into Apollo's eyes once again, he finally recognized what he was dealing with. This was no hedgehog, it was a monster.

-----

Location: Tails' Workshop

Time Remaining: 8: 13

"So, what are you saying? That we should try to go get Knucklehead back?" Wave asked skeptically.

Tails shrugged. "I know it sounds crazy," he sighed, "but maybe we can take the machine with us and use it when we've got the Master Emerald–"

"No way, I'm not sticking my neck out for Mister Red Mutt. If you're going do it without me," Wave said, plopping down in the chair that Shadow had recently vacated.

The next thing Storm knew, everyone was staring at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. At last he sighed. "I'd have to stay here if Wave did," he mumbled thickly.

Everyone sighed. Anyone who had walked into the room at that moment would have immediately known that the group was low on morale. "So what are we gonna do?" Sonic asked. He looked at everyone in the room, then stood up. "Okay," he sighed, passing a hand over his brow. "To make this ten times easier on deciding what to do, let's have a vote on it. Everyone who wants to go see if we can get him back from Chaos raise their hand."

Both Tails and Sonic raised their hands immediately, but were surprised when no one else offered their help. "I think it would be best if Cream and I stayed here," Vanilla said quietly.

"Suicide," Wave said simply, throwing her hands into the air. Shadow was still busy flexing his newly spray-painted metal arm, but apparently he had heard the question.

"We don't even know where he is, so how would we save him? Unless you can telepathically find him or... some shit like that... this is great Tails, I mean, wow," Shadow said, making a fist.

Tails sighed. "He's right, we're trying to think up some half-baked plan of saving Knuckles when we don't even know where he is," the kitsune said, cupping his chin in his hands.

"Is there any way you could find him?" Rouge asked after a brief period of silence.

Tails looked doubtful. "I have a small satellite on the roof that could run a scan for Knuckles' DNA. I think there's a blood stain on one of my blank CDs from when you and Knuckles got into a fight over here Sonic. Just need to see if it's Knuckles, not yours," Tails said.

"Yeah," Sonic said, looking embarrassed. "You do that." Tails slid one of the many disk drawers open and picked his way through a pile of CDs until he found one that had a rust colored blotch on its reflective, rainbow glossed surface.

"Got it," Tails confirmed, popping the miniature CD into his computer's disc drive. "Now, if you can just gimme a minute to scan this thing..."

"Wow, how many things can you put in one computer Mister Tails?" Cream asked, looking over his shoulder in anticipation.

"Apparently lots," Rouge said, shaking her head.

Tails' fingers flew over the keyboard with speed that dazzled even Sonic, and before five minutes had passed, Tails was reading tiny calculations on the screen, his eyes narrowed to slits. At length he sighed and sat back in the chair. "Affirmative friends, my friend; this happens to be a blood droplet that came from his lower gums."

"It tells you all that just from one scan?" Amy asked incredulously.

"And more. It can tell me the exact direction the blood came from, how long it took to dry, and–" Tails began.

"Okay, okay, we get it. Is there any way to scan for Knucklehead?" Sonic interrupted. He was uncomfortably aware of the fact that Wave was imitating a fist hitting her cheek, then teeth flying out of her mouth with hand signs.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Tails said. He swivelled the battered office chair back to face the computer, then pressed the "esc" button, ejecting the CD from the disc drive. Not bothering to remove it from the disc tray, Tails proceeded to click on a small, custom made desktop item showing a small satellite dish. "Now I just have to download that data onto Google Earth, and we should be good to go," The boy fox said.

"How do you that?" Vanilla asked after a moment of watching Tails type entry codes into the computer.

"Hacking. I taught myself how to do it," Tails said. He quickly added, "But that's not really my thing. I only do it when it's absolutely necessary."

Sonic rolled his eyes in exasperation. Tails unexpectedly stopped typing, then sighed. "That should do it," he said. He clicked on another small icon on the desktop and a large, Three-Dimensional picture of the Earth appeared on the computer screen. Tails typed, "Echidna, Knuckles" into the search bar, and the picture slowly zoomed in, rotating until it was focusing on the northwest area of the United Federation. The picture zoomed in more until cement-roofed buildings came into focus, and on top of one of them was a tiny red dot reading "Echidna, Knuckles".

"This is like... the sickest thing I've ever seen on a computer," Sonic said slowly.

"I know, right?" Tails chuckled. He moved a small cursor at the top right of the screen, and the landscape flattened out, showing the building in 3-D.

"Well at least we know he's not at Angel Island. Where is that?" Sonic asked. Tails drew in a deep breath.

"You're not gonna believe this. He's in Grand Metropolis, in its central military building," Tails said.

A concerned murmur ran through the group. "What are they doing to him?" Amy asked slowly.

"I don't know... but it looks like he's on the top floor. Those are supposed to be..." Tails typed a string of code into a miniature search bar at the bottom of the screen before saying, "the interrogation cells."

"If that creepy hedgehog is there, he might be trying to find out where the rest of the Chaos Emeralds are," Rouge said concernedly.

"What creepy hedgehog?" Wave asked suddenly.

"We think it's the one who killed Jet. I saw him too," Shadow said. Storm and Wave both looked at him.

"You think that hedgehog is with those things?" Wave asked slowly.

"Positive," both Rouge and Shadow said at the same time.

Wave looked at Storm, who sighed and shook his head sadly. "I don't think we should go," the albatross mumbled.

Sonic scowled. "Well even if it's just me, I'm going there to help him. I know we never really agreed on much, but..." Sonic paused for a moment, as if thinking about what he was about to say. At last he sighed, "He's my friend."

"I'll–" Tails began. Sonic laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Not you Tails. I know you've been through a lot of dangerous stuff, and I believe in you. But I need you here, directing me at your computer. I can't do this on my own," Sonic said. Tails grumbled something, but sat back down in the chair and swivelled in a circle lazily. Sonic looked around at the rest of the group. "Is that it? I'm the only one who's going out there to help Knuckles? Not you Amy," he added quickly, seeing a glow fill the pink hedgehog's cheeks.

Rouge looked over everyone else slowly, waiting for their responses. When no one said anything, she sighed and stepped forward. "What the hell, better dying like this than trying to steal a stupid gem," the bat said.

Shadow looked up, surprised by two things, one being that she called jewels "stupid", and the other that she willingly volunteered to risk her life for Knuckles.

"Thanks Rouge," Sonic said, a glimmer of hope now shining in his eyes. He scanned the room once again, then said, "No one else?"

Shadow sat uncomfortably on Tails' cot, his mind torn in two. The last time he had tagged along on a mission like this, Omega had died. He had no wish to lose the last friend he had on Earth. But he knew he couldn't change Rouge's mind about this either. At last he stood and strode forward. "If you do die," he said to Rouge, "I'll die defending your body."

"Aw, that's sweet Shadow," Sonic teased. Shadow scowled and gave the blue hedgehog the finger. Sonic just grinned and raised his hands in the air as if to say, "hey, no worries".

"I think it would be best if you leave your Chaos Emerald here Rouge. If we get caught, we don't want to be giving them both emeralds," Shadow said. Rouge drew the sapphire Chaos Emerald out of her pocket, then reluctantly placed it on top of Tails' computer monitor as Shadow picked up his ruby colored one.

"Keep track of us on that radar Tails," Sonic said. Tails merely grinned mildly and saluted Sonic, an action the hedgehog returned.

"Hang on a second," Shadow said as Sonic and Rouge both touched the emerald in Shadow's hand.

"What?" Rouge asked.

Shadow smirked to himself as he said, "Let's first pay a quick visit to the GUN weapons bunker in Grand Metropolis, shall we?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gotta love the cliff hangers. Please review!


	8. War Zone

**Location: Central City**

**Time Remaining: 7:58**

"Aw, c'mon! There's nothing we're gonna find in the freakin' White House!" Charmy bawled, still upset over the loss of his home.

"Calm down Charmy, I'm sure we'll find something there. Isn't that where all the government secrets are kept anyway?" Vector asked.

"I think that's the Pentagon," Espio said dryly.

"Whatever, same difference. I don't know of any place else to look, is that a good answer?" the crocodile snapped. He was becoming quite frustrated with both of his friends, as none of them were supportive of this new "case". The trio of detectives trotted through the now barren city, heading to its very epicenter, where they hoped to find an intact White House.

"Are we there yet?" Charmy asked after almost half an hour of walking.

"No," Vector grumbled. He was beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. For all they knew, the White House could be no better than their old apartment building. But then again, nothing else seemed particularly damaged by the storm. Every now and again the Chaotix came across a bent telephone pole, a broken area of the road, or the blackened shell of a car, but other than that there was nothing drastically wrong with the city.

"Where'd all the people go?" Espio asked, looking around nervously.

Vector shook his head slowly. "I don't know, but I hope they're all okay. I have a feeling that not a lot of people got out of that storm," he said.

"What's that stuff?" Charmy suddenly asked.

"What? What are you talking about?" Vector asked confusedly.

"That stuff over by the curb. Look!" the bee said, pointing to a puddle of water next to a storm drain.

"Ah, it's just a puddle of water Charmy–" Espio began.

"Yeah, but do you remember it raining at all in the past few days?" Charmy said, faintly smug from his discovery.

Espio and Vector exchanged glances. Charmy did have a point. "What are you getting at buddy?" Vector asked slowly. Charmy just shrugged.

"I dunno. I just thought it was kinda weird," the bee said, absent-mindedly scratching one of his antennae. Vector shrugged and moved towards the puddle on the ground. Espio followed him curiously. But when Vector stopped at the curb, Espio hesitated, then knelt down to examine the liquid. It had a strange, ice blue tinge to it, not like any liquid the chameleon had ever seen before. Slowly, he reached out and touched it with two of his fingers. Vector and Charmy watched in surprise as their friends face twisted into a grimace of disgust.

"Ugh! That stuff isn't water!" Espio said suddenly, jumping backwards. He tried to shake the liquid off of his glove, but it was stuck fast to his hand. Worse, it was quickly expanding and crawling to cover his fingers, then his palm, then his entire hand.

Charmy and Vector let out cries of astonishment as Espio quickly removed his glove and flung it back towards the storm drain. The liquid quickly wrapped itself about the material, seemingly dissolving it as though the liquid was in fact some form of acid. "What is that stuff?" Espio gasped, looking at his gloveless hand.

"I don't– _whoa!_" Vector cried as the puddle of "water" sprang upwards, expanding and thickening, until it formed a liquid form of something that distantly resembled a human being.

Vector tensed, thinking that this thing might suddenly spring at them, but much to his surprise it didn't. In fact, it wasn't even facing them. The creature- whatever it might be- was staring at an old warehouse down the street, swaying drunkenly from side to side.

"Um, excuse me?" Espio said. The Chaos Clone apparently didn't hear him, as it continued to blink its bulbous, green eyes confusedly. "Are you drunk?" Espio called.

Vector blinked. "Let's just leave," he said after a while. But then, the clone slowly turned to face them. Its eyes narrowed as it looked from Vector, to Espio, to Charmy. Vector frowned.What was wrong with this thing?

The Chaos Clone flopped to the side, apparently still unaccustomed to its new liquid legs. "Wow, he's wasted," Charmy observed. The clone reached up and took hold of a lamppost, which was broken and bent so that the sharp, jagged end of the busted pole was facing towards the street.

After getting to its feet, the creature began to stagger towards the Chaotix with its arms outstretched. "Sorry buddy, but we don't have any money. Actually, we're homeless too. Our apartment just got burnt down," Vector said. The Chaos Clone didn't listen, but continued to drag its clumsy self over to the three detectives.

"I think he likes you Vec," Charmy giggled. Vector didn't think it was funny though. There was an odd gleam in this things eyes, and all six of its fingers were groping dangerously. He could tell that a grip like that could crush bone.

"Hey listen buddy, we don't want any trouble, we just want to get to the White House, that's all," the crocodile said. He hoped that the prospect of normal citizens visiting the White House would confuse the Chaos Clone, but it didn't seem to phase the liquid monster on bit.

Now Vector could practically feel the clone's fingers brushing his scaly cheeks, and he became angry and took a few more steps back. "Look pal, I don't know what your deal is, but can't you take a hint? We don't want to hug you!" he cried. When the Chaos Clone didn't listen to him, Vector decided to give the creature a final warning. "Buddy, this is your last chance! Touch me again and... well, I'm gonna have to get physical about this. I don't want to have to hurt you–"

The Chaos Clone lurched forward, groping for Vector's throat. "Step off pal!" the crocodile cried, violently shoving the clone backwards. What happened next seemed to go in slow motion for the Chaotix. The Chaos Zero stumbled backwards, tripped on the curb, and fell– right onto the sharp spike of the bent lamppost. The sharp edge of the metal post was cleanly driven through the back of the creature's head, slicing into the thing's brain and out through its face with gore and brain matter flying from the tip of the spike.

Vector's jaw practically dropped to the street in shock. Charmy's hands flew to his cheeks as he let out a high pitched shriek of fear, and Espio immediately clapped his ungloved hand over his mouth, a look of shock beyond shock written on his face

"You killed him!" Charmy screeched after finally calming down a bit.

"I– I didn't mean to!" Vector stammered. The trio stood in the middle of the street for at least ten minutes, staring at the dead clone. It may have been the hot rays of the afternoon sun, or the alien material that encased the creature's brain, but either way, the Chaos Clone's carcass began to smell.

"His brains look kinda like... I dunno... hamburger meat," Charmy said at last. Vector and Espio looked at him oddly, and he decided to be quiet.

"Ugh, let's get out of here before I barf," Espio said. Vector looked at the chameleon, and he would have laughed if it wasn't for their situation, because Espio was literally _green_.

"Yeah," Vector said slowly. "Let's go then." The three members of the Chaotix turned and slowly made their way towards the White House once more, completely unaware of the dozens of Chaos Clones watching from an alley across the street.

-----

**Location: Grand Metropolis**

**Time Remaining: 7:42**

"Now, I know that you're what these filthy humans call 'out of it', but I know you can hear me in there Knuckles," Apollo hissed between clenched teeth.

He was sitting calmly in front of Knuckles, who now had a bloodied nose, a black eye, and a grisly slash under his arm in the shape of an 'A'. Apollo continued on, "And I know that you are quite resistant to physical pain. More than I expected as a matter of fact. That is why I am going to try something different with you, as much less fun as it will be for me." The hedgehog stood, then leaned forward until his nose was mere inches from Knuckles'. "I am going to tell you a little secret that I have so we can... better understand one another," Apollo said nonchalantly, casually removing the silver wrist rings clipped to his glove. As they came off, Knuckles could see that both the quills and flesh of Apollo's wrists seemed to be scorched by some flame, melting the orange spikes together and misshaping the underlying flesh. Apollo noticed Knuckles fixed gaze and narrowed his eyes. "They are not meant to be removed, but I found somebody to help me with my little problem," he said.

Knuckles blinked. Despite his situation, this interested him greatly. "You see Knuckles," Apollo said, "my master does not like me to sever our bond. But I am going to tell you something. Something that I have kept secret from everyone save myself, and I still have no intention of my master listening in." Apollo sat down in the chair casually, loosening the cuffs of his gloves. After a moment of silence, the hedgehog said, "I hate him. Or her, or it, whatever you would call Dyamisius. I am like his slave, and you do not know how very _difficult _that can be. He forces me to follow him to planet after goddamn planet, and this place, this Earth! Out of all the worthless planets I have been to, this must be the worst. It smells like the sewers of my own home, the humans do, you do, the very Earth seems infected with a disease! The air tastes like a poisonous gas, the water like oil, and don't even let me start on the plant-life! Don't you find this all disgusting? Do you realize what a filthy lifestyle you live by? You let diseases tear through third world countries, and yet your planets wealthiest people do not even seek to invest in the search for a cure! You let homosexuals run amok, letting them marry, have families. You let industries pollute your air with fumes, and yet you do nothing! Don't you think that is disgusting? Can't you just... just..." Apollo looked around the room in disgust.

"Can you not just _see_ the filth in this planet? Don't you believe by helping me rid the universe of this planet, you will be doing other planets a great service?" Apollo asked.

Knuckles blinked. He had been holding his eyes open for so long that they felt as dry as a desert. But something inside the echidna cracked when he heard this sudden outburst from Apollo. He could handle any amount of physical pain, but hearing these things about his own planet made his spirit slowly begin to crumble. Apollo was right. There was nothing that could be done to save their world, so why not let it go quickly? Apollo seemed to have a way to do it, and Knuckles began to wonder if this was the right thing to do.

Apollo's eyes gleamed, and he felt that his triumph was so close that he could touch it, to taste it even. He subtly added, "I don't want history to repeat itself Knuckles; I don't want a little band of resistence to appear from nowhere and ruin my plans. Do you know what I am talking about? Your friends Knuckles. Tell me where they are, and everything will go according to plan. You have to make sacrifices to do what is right sometimes."

Knuckles looked up at Apollo with shameful eyes. Suddenly he realized the utter obviousness of the truth. Why put this off? The way it seemed, the end of the world was inevitable.

-----

A short, stocky postman slowly trudged down the sidewalk, heading towards the central military building of Grand Metropolis with a package in hand. For at least the fifth time that day, he admired how such a small package could be so heavy. What was in it, a solid chunk of steel?

_But who would want something like that anyway?_ the postman thought to himself, shaking his head. He neared the building, but suddenly slowed to a stop. He glanced at the box, torn between his job and his curiosity. Just what was in the box? Finally, with a sigh of, "I can always say the tape broke," the man flicked a penknife out of his pocket, hurried into an alleyway for privacy, and cut the tape sealing the package shut. What he saw had to be the most beautiful gem he had ever laid eyes upon. It seemed to be cut perfectly even, but from the slight roughness on the gems many facets, the postman could tell that this was its natural shape. A soft, turquoise glow seemed to shimmer out through the heart of the crystal, illuminating almost half of the alley.

Just as the man was about to touch the Chaos Emerald, a low groan floated to him from deeper into the alley. "Hello?" the postman called, immediately closing the box again. Another moan of pain came, followed by a voice.

"Hey buddy, ow, aw man, can you come on down here and help? This dumpster tipped over on me!" The voice called. The man cautiously made his way deeper into the alley, clutching the box holding the Chaos Emerald in it to his chest.

"Are you alright?" he called. No answer. "Hello?" he called again. "Hey buddy! Are you alr– ah!" the man let out a brief wail as a dark shape dropped onto him from above, drop-kicking him in the stomach. The man flew backwards and slammed into the cement wall, falling to the ground unconscious.

"Nice acting. That call for help was pretty convincing. If I couldn't sense you in the dark, you would've had me going too," Rouge said, picking up the box and shaking the Chaos Emerald from it.

Sonic immediately snatched it from her and pocketed the gem with a grunt of, "None of the emeralds are safe with you." Rouge just shrugged and strode out into the street.

"Well, that's three emeralds we have now, just four more left for me to find," Rouge said, folding her arms across her chest.

"You mean one more. Shadow said he saw that Apollo character with three of them," Sonic said, looking at the military building down the road. The hedgehog frowned. "Man, how are we gonna get in there? I mean, you could probably sneak into a vent or something, but I can't do that kind of stuff," Sonic said.

"Run passed them so fast that they can't see you," Rouge suggested.

"Sure, then I'll run right through a wall once I get in. I don't know how to navigate that place," Sonic said. To his surprise, Rouge had another idea.

"Do you mind wearing human clothes?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

-----

The door leading to the rooftop of one of Grand Metropolis's tallest skyscrapers opened with a low groan. Apparently no one had been up there in a while. Shadow the Hedgehog calmly strode out onto the rooftop, holding a black duffel bag in one hand and wearing a buttoned up black trench coat. Acting as if he had done the same thing hundreds of times before, Shadow set the duffel bag down near the edge of the rooftop, unzipped it, and began removing the various unassembled pieces of a high powered, single-shot sniper rifle. The black hedgehog calmly began to assemble the gun, not phased at all by the fact that he was teetering seventy stories above the streets, which were now quiet from the Chaos Clone curfew. In only a matter of minutes, the rifle was fully assembled, with clip and all in place. Shadow knelt down over the edge of the roof, placing the rifle hop-up on the raised border of the rooftop and aiming the gun towards the military building.

Gazing down the scope, Shadow slowly tilted the gun upwards until the top story of the military building was in view. Shadow nodded his head in satisfaction, then reached into the duffel bag, drawing out a miniature, long distance walkie-talkie that Tails had equipped them all with before their departure. "I'm in position guys. Tails, can you find out which room Knuckles is in?" Shadow asked.

There was a few moments silence as the message was transferred to Tails' Workshop, then Tails said, "Found it. You're facing the West side of the building like I told you, right?"

"Yep."

"Great. They should be behind the fourth window from the left side of the building, got it?" Tails said.

Shadow slowly eased the gun to the left, counting the number of windows until he reached the fourth one from the left. "Hang on, I think I see something," Shadow said. He slowly turned a small kob on the scope, and the image of the window seemed to be magnified by ten. "Wait, I see Knuckles! He's right there..." Shadow muttered.

Rouge's voice broke into the line at that moment. "Is he okay? Does he look bad?" she asked.

"Calm down, I'm sure your lover boy can wait for you," Shadow heard Sonic snicker in the background. Shadow's ears twitched in annoyance.

"Stay in focus, dammit," he scolded. "As for your questions Rouge, yes he seems okay, and yes he looks bad."

"What'd they do to him?" Sonic asked. Shadow shook his head.

"I can't tell for sure, but his arm's bleeding, and he looks really pale," shadow muttered. Suddenly he froze. "Son of a bitch," he murmured under his breath. "That son of a bitch."

"What? What's the matter?" Tails asked frightfully.

"That orange guy is with him. That- what's his name again? I can't even remember," Shadow muttered. "He's standing right in front of Knuckles now, I can't risk shooting without hitting him."

Shadow heard Sonic sigh on the other end of the line. "Guess it's up to me and Rouge now. Come one Rouge. Shadow, make sure your trigger finger doesn't get too itchy," he said.

-----

The three guards at the lobby checkpoint in the military building didn't even bother checking the postman as he entered the building. They were all friends with him, and besides, they had been informed of a delivery coming in. "What's up Herb?" one of the guards said, taking a gulp of coffee from the mug in his hand.

The postman shrugged uncomfortably, not saying anything. "So what're you delivering today?" another guard asked conversationally. His question was answered by another shrug, and the postman picked up his pace, hurrying over to the elevator. The three guards looked suspiciously at the postman, who had his UPS cap pulled low over his face, but the elevator doors snapped shut before they could question him further. Once inside, the man began pointing to each of the elevator buttons muttering to himself, "Okay, which floor, which floor? Eighteen? Sixty? Gotta be pretty low... I'll just guess, what's the worst they could do to me?"

To postman closed his eyes and punched the button that would take the elevator to the seventh floor. His knees buckled as the elevator shot up like a bullet, reaching floor number seven in a matter of seconds. The postman steadied himself as he stepped into another hall, saying, "Well I guess it's _gotta_ be fast... over sixty-five freaking stories to this place."

He made his way down the hall until he came to a small, white sign that read, _Seventh Floor, Surveillance Cameras_. "Sweet, I was right," the postman chuckled happily. He trotted over to a small door reading _Surveillance Room _and briskly knocked on it. After a moment, a guard appeared at the door.

"Sorry buddy, guards only. If you're looking to deliver that, drop it off on the second floor," The guard said.

"Oh, well sorry. But I was given orders to give this to the head honcho here. He didn't want anyone messing with it," the postman said.

"The Surveillance Room guard frowned. "Head honcho?" he asked slowly.

The postman cleared his throat. "Yeah. Y'know, like, the big cheese?" he said.

"You mean the GUN Commander? He doesn't stay here, you should know that!" the guard said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. The postman could see that he was trying to peer under his hat and get a glimpse of his face.

"Umm, somebody dropped their keys in the stairwell," The postman said, pulling the baseball cap lower over his head.

"The building is too big for a stairwell sir, we rely on elevators only," the guard said, slowly unsnapping the holster for his pistol.

"Oh, right," the postman said, clicking his tongue. "Well in that case–"

Faster than lightning, the man punched the guard in the crotch. His eyes seemed to bug out of their sockets, and with a hiss of air escaping is mouth the guard fell to the ground unconscious.

"Sorry about that," the postman said sincerely, stepping into the surveillance room and quickly shutting the door behind him. The postman paid no heed to the camera screens, instead marching straight over to the air duct on the ceiling. He pulled a chair away from a desk in the corner, positioning it under the vent in the ceiling. Standing on top of it, he was able to brush the screws with his fingertips. Nodding in satisfaction, he opened up the box he was holding and fished through the styrofoam curls until he found a miniature Phillip's Head Screwdriver. Dropping the box carelessly to the floor, the postman began unscrewing the vent. After he was done, he carefully placed it on the floor so that it didn't make any noise, then called up into the vent, "Rouge? Hey, you there?"

A distant voice, growing louder by the second, answered him. "Get out of the way!" it cried. The postman hopped off of the chair and moved it out of the way just as Rouge the Bat slid head-first into view. She came to a sudden stop just before her ankles passed out of the air duct, causing her to dangle upside down. Rouge took a deep breath then dropped, flipping in midair so that she landed on her feet.

"Nice," the postman said, tugging his baseball cap off. Three blue, bunched-together hedgehog spines appeared, and Sonic had to shake his head furiously to get them back to normal. "My god, that hat itched bad," Sonic muttered.

"Got my screwdriver?" Rouge said, holding out her hand.

Sonic blinked. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Here it is," he said, handing the tool over to Rouge, who tucked it into her boot. "Why do you have a screwdriver anyway?" Sonic asked, unbuttoning the postman's scratchy shirt.

"A thief's always gotta be prepared, right?" Rouge said, glancing sidelong at the hedgehog. The pair strode up to the security videos, checking all of the screens for any sign of Knuckles. "Let's see, we know he's on the top floor, but which room is he in?" Rouge muttered.

Sonic squinted at the buttons on the control panel, then as if without thinking, he flipped a red switch reading, _Switch Cameras_.

The many screens all went dark, then flickered back on again almost immediately. "Hey, watch it!" Rouge snapped at Sonic. The blue hedgehog began hurriedly apologizing when he noticed that one of the screens on the board in front of them was dark, save for its room location and number blinking at the bottom corner of the screen.

"Wait, what's that?" Sonic muttered.

"What's what?" Rouge asked, turning back to the board mounting the dozens of screens. Sonic stared at the blank one, reading the information on it carefully. "What's it say?" Rouge asked.

"I think that's where they're keeping him. Top floor, room 7B. It's the only one that's blank," Sonic said.

Rouge shrugged and turned towards the door, expecting Sonic to follow her. When he didn't, she said, "Well?"

"How are we going to get past the guards?" Sonic asked uncertainly. Rouge just chuckled.

"Leave that to Shadow, he's the one who's supposed to be covering us, right?" the bat said, completely unconcerned.

Sonic rolled his eyes and followed Rouge out of the surveillance room and into the elevator. "Careful, this thing goes fast," Sonic said as Rouge pressed the button in the elevator marked with the number _80_. The elevator shot up like a bullet and Rouge was immediately thrown off balance, landing on the floor with a low _thud_. "Told you," the hedgehog said dumbly.

-----

**Location: Tails' Workshop**

**Time Remaining: 7:02**

Tails sat with his nose mere inches away from the computer screen, staring intently at the three green dots positioned at different areas on the screen.

"I can't tell who's who! Which one is Sonic?" Amy whined leaning over the kitsune's shoulder. Tails' face showed mild traces of annoyance, but he began to type coordinates into the computer until the screen zoomed in on the two dots inside the military building.

"I'm going to take a wild guess that Sonic is heavier than Rouge. I can hack into the building's security system and see how much tension is being applied to the wires on each side of the elevator," Tails explained before any of them could ask.

When Shadow, Rouge, and Sonic had left, Wave and Storm had sat in the corner, trying with all their might not to get interested in what Tails was doing. By now, however, they were both looking over Tails' shoulders along with Vanilla, Cream, Cheese, and Amy.

"So... which one's which?" Wave asked after a few moments.

"Be quiet for a sec and I'll let you know, okay?" Tails said. Wave scowled. She had never heard Tails being sarcastic before, but she forgave him. After all, there was a lot of pressure on him at the moment.

"There you go. Rouge is the purple dot, Sonic's the blue, and Shadow's the black one. Now we're all happy," Tails muttered. He picked up the headset that he had been using to communicate with the rescue team and put it on.

Static crackled, followed by Sonic screaming, "Woah, woah, Jesus!" and a sickening _splat_ sound.

"Guys?" Tails asked. Much to his concern, the two dots on the screen weren't moving. "Guys!" Tails called into the microphone again, louder this time.

"We're fine Tails, we just ran into another guard, that's it," Rouge's voice came calmly over the line. On the computer screen, the purple dot moved forward. The blue one lingered for a moment, then hurried after it's counterpart.

-----

**Location: Grand Metropolis**

**Time Remaining: 6: 59**

Rouge wrenched a throwing dagger out of the guard's forehead as she walked by, wiping the blood off onto the man's shirt.

"That's disgusting, why did you have to do that?" Sonic muttered, staying as far away from the dead man as possible.

"He had a gun, in case you didn't notice," Rouge said, tucking the knife into her boot, much like she had done with the screwdriver. "And don't be such a wimp. When you do stuff like this, expect to get your hands dirty a little bit," she added.

"I'm not a wimp, I just don't kill humans," Sonic muttered. Rouge had nothing to say, but unclipped her walkie-talkie from her belt.

"We're getting close to the room. Shadow, can you do anything about the guards outside the door?" she asked.

"Not without the guy inside noticing. Then again, if it scares him, maybe he'll go out into the open," Shadow said.

"You think he might kill Knuckles if you do that?" Sonic asked with his own walkie-talkie. There was a long pause at the other end of the line.

Then Shadow said, "I'll be quick. He won't know what hit him. Bam, bam, bam, done. You get a free chance to grab Knuckles and get the hell outta there."

Sonic and Rouge stopped and looked concernedly at each other for a long moment. "What do you think?" Sonic asked.

Rouge frowned. "I don't know. It's risky, but I know Shadow, and he's a good shot. I say we go for it," she said. Sonic sighed, but reluctantly agreed. Rouge lifted the walkie talkie to her mouth and said, "Alright, do it."

-----

At that moment, many things happened. Outside the interrogation room the window shattered, there were two short _splurch_-ing sounds, and blood immediately was spattered across the bullet-proof window in the door.

With a look of utter astonishment and a short flicker of fear in his face, Apollo no longer seemed to be the imposing embodiment of evil anymore. In fact, Knuckles believed that the hedgehog looked much like a frightened child. But that look quickly passed, and anger hardened over Apollo's face once more. "What the hell is going on?" he muttered between gritted teeth. Apollo stepped towards the door furiously just as the window of the interrogation room shattered. There was a loud sound of something zipping by, and Apollo spun 360 degrees before falling to the ground. At first Knuckles was completely at a loss as to what had just happened. Then he noticed the flecks of blood covering the far side of the wall, and Apollo began screaming every foul word that Knuckles had been taught not to say when he was young.

-----

"Shit," Shadow muttered. He had missed. It had only been by a few inches, but those inches would have made all the difference. He reloaded the rifle and lined up for another shot, but Apollo had fallen to the floor, and Shadow couldn't see him anymore.

Realizing that Sonic and Rouge only had minutes before someone would notice something, Shadow left the rifle where it was and dashed back to the staircase, leaping down entire flights at times in his hurry to reach the bottom.

-----

Apollo let out another scream of agony, clutching at his right arm. The glove covering his hand was completely saturated with blood., and even more continued to ooze down his arm. When Knuckles saw Sonic and Rouge burst into the room, he began to think that he was dreaming a very good dream. To his utter delight, he realized that it was real when Rouge hurried over to the chair Knuckles was tied in and began to pick at the padlock on the chains with the throwing knife she'd killed the guard in the hall with. When the chains fell away, Knuckles immediately felt some form of relief. He was able to move his arms, but his legs felt like jelly.

"Can you stand?" Rouge asked hurriedly. She knew that an alarm would sound any moment now, as the guard in the surveillance room would have probably woken by now (and he would be _very_ sore between the legs, that Rouge also knew).

Knuckles tried to get up, but slipped and crumpled to the ground. "Alright, Sonic, come on! Help me get him out of here!" Rouge commanded. Sonic rushed to his friend's side and helped Rouge lift him up. Ignoring Apollo's hysterical death threats, they began to carry Knuckles out of the room, with Sonic supporting Knuckles on one side and Rouge the other. They were at the threshold of the door when Apollo spat a final curse and grabbed Sonic's ankle furiously.

"Get off me, you psycho!" Sonic cried in disgust, kicking Apollo's bloody hand away from him. Before the orange hedgehog could do anything else, the trio was hurrying down the hallway and into the elevator.

"Careful, this thing moves fast," Rouge warned Knuckles after Sonic pressed the button marked as _Lobby_.

"Woah!" Knuckles cried as the box began to drop from eighty stories high.

-----

Sonic, Rouge, and Knuckles were greeted by a team of armed guards in the lobby as soon as they stepped out of the elevator. "Well we sure didn't have a plan for this," Sonic said worriedly.

"Let go of the prisoner and put your hands on your heads! Do it! Do it now!" one of the guards shouted. Rouge and Sonic exchanged defeated glances and began to let Knuckles slowly down to the floor.

At that moment a shrill whistle sounded from the lobby doors. "Hey shitheads, over here!" a voice shouted. The guards turned in astonishment to see a black hedgehog holding a small cylinder of metal in his hand. "Cover your eyes!" Shadow roared to Sonic, Rouge, and Knuckles.

Confused but trusting, Sonic and Rouge turned Knuckles around and closed their eyes as tightly as they could. Shadow tossed the flash grenade in his hand to one of the guards and grinned. "Catch," he chuckled before turning his face away and shutting his eyes.

A blinding flash of light tore through the lobby followed by the resounding cries of the blinded guards. Wasting no time, Shadow dashed forward and flipped over the heads of the panicking men, skidding to a halt in front of Sonic, Rouge, and Knuckles. "Ready?" he asked, drawing the red Chaos Emerald out from under his coat.

"As ready as we can get," Sonic muttered, placing both his hand and Knuckles' on the emerald. Rouge followed suit, and in a flash of red light, they were gone.

-----

When two guards rushed to the interrogation room to see what had happened, they found a very bloody and _very_ angry Apollo. "Are you alright sir?" one of them asked timidly.

"_No, I'm not fucking alright!_" Apollo screeched. "I was just shot in the arm, the prisoner escaped, and you're all standing here like a bunch of morons! Get me a medic_ now!_" he shouted. One of the guards hurried off to get help while the other stayed in an attempt to help Apollo.

"Um, sir," he said slowly, wondering if it was the right time to bring this up, "when will I get payed for this?"

Apollo shot him a venomous glare, but growled, "Ten more hours. Do we still have the Master Emerald with us?"

"Yes sir, I think so."

"Good. Keep it under guard and scan all areas in the United Federation for a point-zero two magnetic field," Apollo said. "Then send one hundred of our Chaos troops to any areas generating a field such as that."

The guard looked utterly confused, but with a mumble of, "Yes sir," he hurried off to do as he was told.

Apollo stayed where he was, sitting in a pool of his own warm blood. With shaking hands, he clipped the silver rings he had back around his wrists. He smiled softly to himself. That blue hedgehog had flexi-steel soles on his sneakers, and flexi-steel was one of the rarest substances in the United Federation. It was also the only substance in the entire world that could generate a point-zero two magnetic field.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Author's Note:** Sorry if this seems like it was cut off. I did want to extend this, but I realized I needed more content in the next chapter. Anyways, I hope this tides you over 'till next update, which I'm sorry to say might take a while (but what else is new?)

Please review!


	9. Standoff

Location: Tails' Workshop

Time Remaining: 6: 20

"How do you feel?" Amy asked nervously, looking grimly at the bandaged "A" slash under Knuckles' arm.

"Bad," the echidna croaked as Tails handed him a glass of water. He gratefully thanked the fox and downed it in one gulp.

"What did they want to know? Where the Chaos Emeralds were?" Tails asked.

Knuckles coughed and shook his head. "No, no. I think he already knows where they are... or _were_, since you guys stole that one," he said, gesturing towards the turquoise emerald they had placed on a workbench next to the other two.

"So Apollo has three and we have three," Shadow muttered. "Six found, just one to go."

"_Two_ to go," Knuckles growled. "You idiots forgot to get the Master Emerald while you were there."

Sonic blinked, suddenly remembering that. "Oh yeah. Whoops," he said slowly. Knuckles shook his head angrily. In his mind, it would have been better for them to have left him and taken the Master Emerald instead.

"Well we need that emerald, there's no question about it," Shadow said, folding his arms and leaning against a wall.

"Good luck going back there, I bet that they're locking that place down tight," Rouge scoffed. "And I would know. You only get one shot at a job like that."

Sonic frowned. "Well maybe we could make some disguise again. It worked with that postman get-up ," he said.

"No, they'll probably be expecting that," Tails sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his forefinger and thumb to his temples. "It's just my opinion, but I think that we ought to concentrate on finding and securing the last emerald before that Apollo creep gets to it," he added.

"I agree with Tails, it's no use moping around about something you didn't get if there's still a lot left to do!" Amy said, suddenly jumping up from the cot, where she had been sitting quietly up until now.

Sonic stood there for some time, deep in thought, until he noticed that everyone in the room was looking at him. "Well?" Wave asked expectantly.

"Well, what?" Sonic blinked. Suddenly he realized it; everyone present was looking to him for guidance and leadership. Sonic sighed and looked sidelong at Tails. "You think you'll be able to track that last emerald?" the hedgehog asked his kitsune friend.

Tails flashed Sonic a small grin and said, "I'll see what I can do."

"Good man," Sonic said, reaching over and patting Tails on the shoulder. He knew that if it involved technology for Tails, "I'll see what I can do" meant "Sure thing boss."

-----

Location: Grand Metropolis

Time Remaining: 6: 15

"Well, you weren't exactly shot," a nurse said crisply to Apollo as she finished wrapping gauze around his wound, "but then again, you weren't so lucky as to get grazed."

"What in the hell is that supposed to mean?" Apollo growled, hopping off the examination table in the medical center of the government building. He no longer felt any excruciating pain in his arm, but it felt stiff and stung terribly if he lifted it too high.

"It means that the bullet was millimeters from hitting your humerus. You're lucky that the bone didn't shatter into a million pieces," The nurse said, beginning to shelf the medical kit she had been using.

Apollo looked down at his arm with an angry frown. "Is there any medication that can accelerate the healing?" he asked slowly. The nurse looked at him, surprised.

"Well, yes. But it takes about a week to start working, and it costs a fortune. Only some of the wealthier generals have used it before," she chuckled.

"I'll pay whatever I have to," Apollo said flatly. The nurse stared at him for a moment, trying to tell whether the hedgehog was serious or not.

At length, she reached into a drawer and pulled out a tube of cream labeled _Quickheal_ and handed it to Apollo. "Put only a drop on the wound. It should start feeling a little better by tomorrow," the nurse said. "Pay at the counter before you leave."

Without bothering to thank the nurse, Apollo turned and exited the room, pocketing the tube of cream once he was out of the nurse's sight. When he saw that no one was watching, Apollo hurried into the men's bathroom and began to unwrap his bandages. When his arm wound was uncovered, Apollo hurriedly drew out the cream, bit the cap off, and squeezed the entire tube of medicine into the torn area of flesh. Immediately a warm numbness spread throughout his arm, and after waiting a few moments, Apollo could almost feel his cells slowly regenerating.

After waiting a few more minutes, Apollo wrapped his arm in the bandages once again and left the bathroom, heading for the elevator. Once inside, he pressed the button marked _80_ and braced himself for the rush of the elevator. After reaching the top floor, Apollo made his way up a small flight of stairs to the roof of the building.

Apollo gazed out over the city, feeling the cool afternoon breeze blow between his quills. His eyes traveled upwards until they were level with a large, dark cloud stretching over Grand Metropolis like the black hand of death. "No," Apollo said softly. He paused for a moment. "I understand. Yes. No, they didn't take the Master Emerald, it is still secure."

Dyamisius rumbled in the distance. "I was shot master, there was nothing that I could do," Apollo said between gritted teeth. "They won't get away, I made sure the soldiers tracked them- yes, I still have GUN in check. No, I'm sure they won't be a problem."

Dyamisius flashed red with fury, causing Apollo to wince. "Chaos troops are standing by master," he said shakily. "I'm sending our best soldiers in. They won't get away."

Location: Tails' Workshop

Time Remaining: 5:57

"You guys are _not_ going to believe this," Tails said finally.

"What is it?" Knuckles asked, leaning over Tails' shoulder. The echidna seemed to be feeling a bit better, but still needed rest. Apollo's torture had badly harmed him both physically and mentally.

"The last emerald is on Prison Island," Tails sighed. "In one of the abandoned missile silos in the forest.

"Well at least we won't have to worry about having to dig around in the jungle for it," Sonic shrugged. "All we have to worry about is not accidentally setting off the missile!"

No one laughed at Sonic's joke. Instead, everyone looked at each other grimly. Sonic clicked his tongue. "Okay then," he said slowly, slightly embarrassed. "Well, I guess we should vote on it before we leave on this... mission... thing. Or whatever it is, let's just vote. All in favor of trying to get the Master Emerald back, raise your hand."

Knuckles immediately put his arm in the air. Rouge hesitated for a moment, thinking of how beautiful the world's largest emerald would look displayed in her apartment. But she quickly shook these thoughts out of her head. _For once in you life Rouge, think of something besides jewels_, she thought to herself.

"Okay. All in favor of going to Prison Island to find the last Chaos Emerald, raise your hand," Sonic said. Everyone except Wave and Storm raised their hands. "So you're staying here then?" Sonic asked with a slight trace of disappointment in his voice.

"Yeah, we're staying," Wave said without hesitation. "We don't want anything else to do with your little war."

"Um, if I may," Vanilla interrupted politely. "I know it's a bit hypocritical of me to do this, but although I do think that you should try to recover that last emerald, I think it would be best if Cream and I stayed here."

"Sounds good to me. Knuckles, Tails, you stay here too," Sonic said.

"Wait, what?" Tails asked surprisedly. No, I want to come too!"

"Look Tails, it's not that it's too dangerous or anything like that, but I need you to stay here and guide us on your computer," Sonic said, putting a hand on the boy fox's shoulder.

"Come on, can't I guide you from the _Tornado_ or something?" Tails pleaded.

"It's out of fuel, remember? Hey, look at it this way; if anyone comes here and tries to attack Knuckles, you'll be here to save him!" Sonic said, tousling Tails' hair. Tails laughed a little, then sighed.

"Fine, I'll stay," he said. "But you owe me! Next time we go on some adventure, you have to stay here while I get to have all the fun."

Sonic smiled, but said nothing. He secretly wondered if there was ever going to be a next time. "Okay then Shadow," he said, turning to the black hedgehog, "you can Chaos Control us all the way to mission Island, right?"

"What are you, joking? It would be impossible to teleport three of us there with one emerald–"

"You missed me! You mean teleport four people, not three. I'm coming too!" Amy said happily. Slinging her Piko Piko hammer over her shoulder, she cheerfully skipped over to Sonic, Shadow and Rouge as if nothing was wrong.

"Oh god," muttered Sonic.

"I don't know if I could get us there even if I used all three of the emeralds we had," Shadow sighed. Then he glanced at Sonic. "At least I couldn't do it alone," he said slowly.

Sonic blinked. "Wait a minute, you know I don't like using Chaos Control myself," Sonic blinked, raising his hands.

"Do you want to get there in one piece or not?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It makes me feel bloated!" Sonic whined. When everyone, even Amy, gave him stern looks, Sonic finally submitted. "All right, all right, fine," he muttered.

Holding all three Chaos Emeralds, both Sonic and Shadow closed their eyes, and making sure that both Rouge and Amy were hanging on to them, they murmured, "Chaos Control," and were gone.

Location: Prison Island

Time Remaining: 5:50

Amy had never traveled by Chaos Control before, so when they disappeared, she felt extremely uncomfortable. Amy felt as though she were completely weightless, flying with blazing speed through a world without time or space. She felt as cold as death, and yet at the same time, the warmth of the Chaos Emeralds seemed to be coursing through her veins. Suddenly they were hurtling towards a wall of green and brown. She closed her eyes and tried to scream, but the air seemed to be sucked from her lungs the moment she opened her mouth.

Then her feet connected with solid ground, so suddenly and quickly that she almost lost her balance and fell to the ground.

"Yeah, I hate the feeling too," Sonic said, steadying her. He looked up at the forest, which was once rich and green, but was now a sickly brown hue from both time and a massive bomb that had decimated most of the life on the island.

"Well, at least we made it all right," Rouge said, brushing dust from her pants. "So now where do we go?"

Sonic raised Tails' satellite walkie-talkie to his lips and said, "We're here Tails, just tell us where to go." There was a crackle of static over the line, then Tails spoke.

"Turn twelve degrees to your left, then head straight on forward. Eventually you'll hit a metal walkway that'll lead right to the silo. Just be careful of the GUN security system, it went totally haywire after Shadow and Eggman blew the island up. Those mechs would probably shoot at each other now," the fox said.

"Is there any way to shut it down?" Sonic asked slowly. There was a long pause on Tails' end of the walkie-talkie.

"Maybe," Tails said uncertainly. "I know GUN put a lot of money into this place back in the day, and you couldn't deactivate the security just by pressing an _Off_ switch or anything. I'll try to override automated gun turrets and security lockdowns in buildings, but you'd have to shut the patrol robots down manually. I don't think they're linked with the main computer, just programmed to shoot at intruders."

"Well do your best Tails. We're counting on you.," Sonic replied.

"I know I'm not the leader here, but I think that if it were up to me, I'd have Shadow and Rouge go and try to shut off the security while you and Amy grab the emerald," Tails suggested to Sonic. The hedgehog blinked.

"That's a good idea. All right then, Shadow, Rouge, you go find the control room... um, where is that Tails?" Sonic asked.

"Other side of the island. But hey, Shadow's a fast runner. He could make it there and back in record time," Tails said.

Shadow scowled then grabbed the walkie-talkie from Sonic's hands. "Fine then, we'll go. Where is the control room _exactly_?" he hissed into the speaker.

"Just follow the beach, it's right on the edge of the forest. You'll see it if you don't blow by it too quickly," Tails reassured Shadow.

Shadow glanced at Rouge, who merely shrugged. "Hey, if it takes less time, I'm all for it," she said.

Shadow tossed the walkie-talkie back to Sonic and began to follow the part of the forest that seemed to be growing thinner. "Yeah, but I'm the one who has to carry you," he muttered.

"Well, I don't weigh that much, do I?" Rouge snickered. When Shadow didn't answer, she hurried after him. "Well... I don't, do I?"

Location: Tails' Workshop

Time Remaining: 5:46

Tails yawned loudly, stretching his arms into the air. Despite the fact that his friends were on perhaps one of their most dangerous missions yet, all this action had tires the fox out. His vision was blurry from squinting at the computer screen for so long, and he had a splitting headache.

Wave was laying on Tails' cot, lazily flipping through the TV channels, and Storm had busied himself with foraging through the refrigerator. Tails was amazed at how much the albatross could eat, and yet he still claimed that he was hungry after eating three and a half meatballs with tomato sauce, two legs of roasted chicken, a baked potato, five loaves of bread, and almost half a dozen apples. Almost all of the food Tails had.

Vanilla and Cream sat silently on a workbench, with Cheese hovering happily around their heads, seemingly unknowing of the situation. Tails felt immensely sorry for both Cream and Vanilla. Their home must be a wreck, they were confused, and they seemed terribly frightened as well.

"Why don't you have any of the good channels Tails?" Wave asked tiredly.

Tails frowned. "What? I rigged my own satellite to that thing, it should get every channel you can think of!" he said, removing his headset and getting up to look at the TV.

"Well all this thing's showing is numbers. See? 5:45, and it just said 5:46 a second ago. What's the matter, you got a bomb in it or something?" Wave asked, pointing to the television screen. Sure enough, Tails saw that there was nothing but static and green numbers on the television. It almost seemed as though this were a sort of countdown-

Tails felt like slapping himself. He had forgotten all about Dyamisius the message on Eggman's database. "Well that makes everything about eight hundred times harder," Tails muttered to himself.

"What does?" Wave asked, becoming suddenly attentive.

"On top of needing the Master Emerald and the other Chaos Emeralds, we only have about six more hours to live," Tails said, cringing at the prospect of death.

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing. "What?" they all gasped in unison.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Wave cried angrily. "We might have been able to get help earlier, but instead they go on some insane emerald chase? Can't you people figure anything out yourselves?"

Tails sighed and pressed his palms to his eyes. "I don't know if there's anything we could do anyway. One second everything's fine, Eggman is defeated, and the next second everything goes to h–"

_Bam!_

The entire workshop shuddered as a sudden force slammed into the steel door of the building. Tails jumped at the noise, frightened out of his wits.

"Oh god, what now?" Knuckles groaned from the corner he was resting in. He didn't have the strength in him to run from any threat, much less fight one.

The door bent under consecutive pounds on the metal, each blow bending the door hinges dangerously. After five hits, the door burst apart with a loud _clang,_ and two hulking, humanoid shapes leapt into the room. "Uh-oh," Tails said aloud before being pounced upon by one of the two Chaos Clones.

Tails was caught between the hard cement floor and the crushing liquid weight of the clone's body. He could barely breath, move, or even feel his entire torso for that matter. Slowly, the Chaos Zero's gigantic hands slid up to Tails neck, the over the fox's entire head. Then it began to squeeze.

Tails had never felt such desperation, or agony, in his entire life. It felt as though he were being strangled to death and drowned at the same time. Tails uselessly flailed his limbs in all directions, desperately trying to free himself, but it was no use. Beyond the rippling liquid of the clone's hands, Tails could hear the muffled sounds of struggling throughout the room. But when tails tried to open his eyes and see what was happening, the stinging liquid of the Chaos Clone's palms rushed into his eyes, forcing him to shut them because of the pain.

Tails struggled and flailed until he caught hold of the smooth handle of an electric screwdriver that cheese had knocked onto the floor earlier. Flicking the _on _switch on the handle, Tails blindly thrust the tool upward. The clone's grip on Tails face slackened a little, and Tails took the opportunity to prop himself up on one elbow and thrust the screwdriver forward even further into the clone. Immediately a warm liquid began to seep into Tails' glove and run down his arm, and the clone began to twitch and spasm uncontrollably. In desperate need for air, Tails pushed the screwdriver forward even more, until he felt his hand come out of the warmth and into cool air.

The Chaos Clone sagged onto Tails, it's hands sliding off of the kitsune's face as it died. Tails tore himself away from the dead creature and sucked fresh air into his lungs as if he hadn't breathed since he was born. When he finally regained his strength, Tails discovered that he had drilled into the creature's eye and straight through it's brain, and the warmth that he had felt on his hands and arms was in fact blood and brain matter.

Sliding his arm out of the bloody mess, Tails quickly scrambled to his feet to find Knuckles brawling with the second clone. Tails blinked. He had seen this clone on Angel Island before they had fled. This clone was slightly more slender in body shape than others, indicating more litheness and agility, and it had a reversed color scheme to it. It was also beating the living shit out of Knuckles at the moment.

Knuckles stood where he was, absorbing blows strong enough to crack the tiling on Tails' floor, only delivering his own punches when Chaos-Jet was distracted by one of Cream's cries of fear.

Chaos-Jet finally delivered a ruthless uppercut to Knuckles' chin, knocking the scarlet echidna onto his back. Wasting no time in pressing his attack, Chaos-Jet lifted the TV up off of the ground, tearing the plugs out of the electrical outlets, and stood over Knuckles, poised to smash his skull open with the device. Just as Chaos-Jet was about to drop the TV, Storm leapt in front of him and grasped him by the wrists, preventing Chaos-Jet from letting go of the TV.

Chaos-Jet stared at Storm curiously with his head cocked to one side, then let the TV drop to the floor harmlessly. Confused, Storm threw a punch at Chaos-Jet, which was easily blocked by the liquid creature's gigantic hand. Storm desperately tried to wrench his hand free, but Chaos-Jet held fast to him, not attacking but not letting Storm attack either. When Tails, still wielding the blood smeared screwdriver, jumped onto Chaos-Jet's shoulders however, he angrily slapped the kitsune off of him as though he were a fly.

Tails flew across the room, and would have landed on the jagged edge of a broken piece of metal if Wave had not caught him. "Just stay here, and keep out of trouble you little brat!" the swallow hissed at Tails before snatching her Extreme Gear up off the floor and rushing to help Storm.

By now, Chaos-Jet had caught hold of both of Storm's fists, and at the moment they were spinning in circles, with storm trying furiously to fling Chaos-Jet off of him. But when Wave tore past both of them on her _Type-W_ board and hit Chaos-Jet in the side of the head, Storm finally got the upper hand and hurled the clone into the wall. Chaos-Jet was quick to recover however, rolling sideways along the floor and springing into the corner of the workshop with one fluid movement.

But when Storm stepped forward to attack again, Chaos-Jet held his hand up, as though he were signaling them to stop. Wary of any tricks, Wave relaxed little and maintained her fighting stance. "Who are you?" she asked slowly.

Chaos-Jet stood at his full height and tilted his head down. Then, to all their surprise, Chaos-Jet spoke. _"Friend..."_ he garbled slowly in a voice that sounded as though it were coming from underwater.

"Yeah, if you're our friend then why were you trying to crush me with a TV?" Knuckles groaned, sitting up and brushing dust off his muzzle.

Chaos-Jet shot Knuckles a poisonous glare, then returned his gaze to Storm and Wave. _"Friend,"_ he repeated slowly, pointing at the Babylon Rogues, then touching his chest.

"We're not friends, and I don't plan on being your friend," Wave said angrily, still poised to attack if Chaos-Jet made any sudden movements.

Chaos-Jet's eyes narrowed, then he shook his head. _"Jet,"_ he said. _"Friend."_ He touched his chest again and repeated, _"Jet." _

"If you're Jet, then why would you try to kill us?" Tails asked suspiciously.

_"Friend,"_ Chaos-Jet repeated, pointing at the Rogues. Storm and Wave glanced at each other quizzically.

"You aren't going to try and hurt us?" Wave asked slowly. Chaos-Jet shook his head slowly. "Will you try and hurt them?" Wave nodded at Tails, the Rabbits, and Knuckles.

Chaos-Jet looked from his old teammates to his old rivals, then back at the Rogues. Even slower than before, Chaos-Jet shook his head. It seemed as though two parts of his mind were struggling for dominance over the other.

Still wary, Wave asked Chaos-Jet a question. If he was who he said he was, he would answer correctly. "What did you used to used to call the kitchen cabinets?" the swallow asked.

Chaos-Jet tilted his head to the side, as though attempting to bring forth a distant memory. Then he said, _"Damn cabinets... stuck all the time..."_

Realization suddenly hit Storm and Wave with the full force of a train. Jet the Hawk was alive; not only that, but he was standing right in front of them.

"Jet?" Storm gasped. He and Wave slowly approached him, seeming to be afraid that they were in a dream.

_"Friend,"_ Chaos-Jet repeated monotonously. Without warning, both of the Rogues rushed forward and embraced him, Storm squeezing so tight that Chaos-Jet had to push him back in case his unprotected heart exploded under the albatross's immense strength.

"I still don't trust him. That thing beat the living crap out of me on Angel Island," Knuckles grumbled stubbornly. The Rogues took no notice of the grudging echidna. Tails felt a bit uneasy still, but if Wave and Storm were positive that this was Jet then he would go along with it too. Vanilla and Cream, who had at first looked frightened and confused now looked relieved and even happy for the reunited friends.

"But...how? How did you turn into this- this _thing?_" Wave asked in shock.

"I, uh, think I can explain that," Tails said, wiping the blood on his arm off onto the floor. "As I was saying before, that thing on the TV was like a countdown. This thing, like an alien parasite, it's coming towards Earth, and... well, let's just say it's pretty big."

"Wait, so this thing is going to come here and... what? Eat us all one by one?" Knuckles groaned, picking himself up from the ground.

"No, all at once. It's big enough to swallow the entire planet," Tails said. "And if we don't find a way to stop it in about-" Tails quickly checked the clock on the wall "-about five hours, we're screwed."

Chaos-Jet looked at Tails. _"Coming... soon..."_ he gurgled.

"Yeah, I know. It's way too soon-" Tails began.

Chaos-Jet shook his head. He lifted one arm and pointed at the other dead clone on the floor. _"Just scouts... more coming... soon..."_ he said.

Tails blinked. "Oh. Well that's perfect," he said blankly. Suddenly Tails' walkie-talkie began to crackle with static as Sonic's voice came through the line.

"Hey Tails, we've ran into a little trouble here and- woah!" the sound of an explosion was heard through the walkie-talkie. "Yeah, anyway, Amy and I got separated. I think she's heading on to the missile silo, but I'm on the run from GUN sentry mechs right now. You think you might be able to help me out?"

Tails swiped up the device and sighed, "I'd love to Sonic, but we've got our own problems here."

"I don't think they're worse than this," Sonic panted.

"I hope not. Listen, there's some good news and bad news I have to tell you-"

"Gimme the bad news first so the good news lightens me up afterward ," Sonic said.

Tails wiped sweat from his brow. "Okay," he said. "The bad news is that there are a lot of clones coming here and we don't really have a way of defending ourselves. The good news is, Jet's alive."

"Really? Hey, I knew he'd find some way to come back after falling forty thousand feet," Sonic joked.

"Well yeah, but... Jet's a clone too."

Sonic paused on the other end of the line. "Okay, I don't even want to _know_ how that happened," he muttered at last. "Wait, did you say you had no way to get rid of the other Chaos Clones?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah, why?" Tails asked, frowning.

"Um, duh! That machine Eggman was making!" Sonic cried. Tails blinked.

"You're a genius," Tails said before turning the walkie-talkie off and tossing it aside.

"I try. Tails? Hey, I'm talking to y-" Sonic's voice faded into a storm of static as the communications device hit the cement wall.

"Okay Jet, here's your chance to prove that you're trustworthy enough. We need the Master Emerald back, but that military building's locked down pretty tight. If you can get it to us before those Chaos reinforcements get here, you'll have all of our everlasting gratitude. Do you think you can do that?" Tails asked, panting for breath.

Chaos-Jet seemed to scowl at Tails menacingly. He didn't move a muscle.

Tails sighed in exasperation. "Wave, tell him. Please," he begged the swallow. Although Wave would have liked to prolong the reunion of the Babylon Rogues, she knew that Tails was right.

"Jet, we really need that emerald. Please help us," she begged.

Chaos-Jet blinked. When Tails had spoken to him, he seemed tense and angry, as though Tails were interrupting the moment with a selfish request. But when Wave had asked the same question, he nodded his head, perfectly willing to do it.

_He's still partly under Dyamisius' control_, Tails realized. _He'll only listen to one of his old friends_. "How fast to you think you can get it to us Jet?" Tails asked, trying to sound as friendly as ever.

Chaos-Jet shrugged. _"Thirty-five,"_ he said. Tails frowned.

"Thirty-five? Thirty-five minutes?" the fox asked. Chaos-Jet nodded. Tails sighed and pressed his clean glove against his forehead. "Thirty-five minutes... we have about four and a half hours left right now, so that only leaves us with three hours and fifty-five minutes to figure out a way to beat this Dyamisius." He stopped. They only had four hours. Four hours to save themselves. Four hours to live. Four hours until the world ended. It would have seemed completely hopeless to a normal human being, but Tails had faced even more dangerous and dire circumstances than this before.

Chaos-Jet looked at Storm and Wave as if to say "I'll be right back" before turning and hurrying out the door.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Author's Note:** Had to cut it off a little abruptly there, but I haven't updated in so long and I needed to post something. Anyway, I hope this chapter is as good as the others, and any constructive criticism will be taken gladly. And as always, please review!


	10. Apocalypse

****

Location: Grand Metropolis

Time remaining: 4: 27

Apollo slouched moodily in an office chair, glaring at a group of GUN soldiers with his cold, steady gaze. His arm had healed miraculously in the mere two hours that had passed since his use of the regeneration cream. The large chunk of flesh that had been torn from Apollo's arm already seemed to have mostly grown back. However, his upper arm still felt terribly stiff, and if he pressed against the bandage too hard a searing pain would jolt up his humerus and into his shoulder. Apollo was careful not to bump his arm into anything.

His eyes widened in both pain and anger as one of the GUN personnel tapped him on the arm. "Sir," the man said.

Apollo stood and turned the man. "Yes?" he asked slowly.

"One of the five magnetic fields being traced seems to have moved sir," the man said, looking down at the three foot hedgehog and wondering why all of the soldiers warned him to say "sir" when addressing him.

Apollo looked interested. "Really? Where has it moved to?" he asked the soldier.

"Prison Island, an abandoned GUN abode. It was abandoned by our forces nearly a year ago when a bomb detonated under the military base," the soldier said. "Our radar also picked up high levels of Chaos Energy emanating from the island. There could be a Chaos Emerald there."

Apollo's ears perked up at the sound of this. "Really?" he said again. He hadn't known that there was a Chaos Emerald on Prison Island. He would look into it himself. "Send one hundred of my troops to both Prison Island and the area where the field had been previously. You just watch the radars while I am gone," Apollo said.

The soldier blinked in confusion as Apollo brushed past him. He had no idea why an officer would want to personally take part in a field mission, or why he was instructed to have Chaos soldiers sent to a supposedly empty area. But he didn't ask questions, and he didn't disobey. After all, any soldier who disobeyed a direct order got two things: a court marshal and a swift kick in the ass.

Apollo made sure that he had all three of his Chaos Emeralds with him when he Chaos Controlled to Prison Island. He had no desire to reach his destination and then discover that he didn't have enough Chaos Energy to bring his head along with the rest of his body. As Apollo walked down one of the military building's many corridors, A lone Chaos Clone turned around the corner. Apollo seemed to be letting it pass for a moment, but then stopped it. "Once I am out of the building, kill all military personnel. We have no further use for them," he said.

The clone nodded slowly. Apollo stopped it once again as it was about to continue on. "Guard the Master Emerald at _all costs_," Apollo said firmly. The clone nodded once more, and Apollo let it go. When it was out of sight, Apollo continued on into the armory of the building. He calmly selected his own Smith and Wesson Sigma handgun from a steel shelf. He checked the ammo count in the clip, then swapped it for a fresh one upon seeing that it had only four bullets left in it. Apollo holstered his weapon, scooped the three Chaos Emeralds up, then disappeared in a flash of green light

--

****

Location: Central City

Time Remaining: 4:20

"Whoa! I didn't know the president liked energy drinks so much!" Charmy squealed with glee upon opening up a fancy wooden cabinet in the president's office. Inside was a full assortment of Monster, Rockstar, and Red Bull energy drinks. Espio quickly snatched a can of Red Bull out of Charmy's hands before he could open it.

"This isn't a time for fooling around," he told the bee sternly.

Charmy pouted. "Well what is it a time for then? We're in the _White House!_ I think we're entitled to a little bit of fun!" he said.

"This is an investigation Charmy. Would you fool around like this at any other crime scene? A murder?" Espio scolded.

"If the dead guy was freakin' rich, sure".

Espio shook his head sadly. Sometimes Charmy could be so immature that Espio almost felt like giving him a well deserved smack upside the head. "How are we making out Vec?" he asked Vector, trying to distract himself from Charmy.

"Huh?" Vector asked, looking up from the President's desk. Well, his old desk at least. When the Chaotix had arrived the building had been completely deserted. "Oh, uh, I don't really know. I've mainly just been looking at all the CDs the President's got here. Look at this: Jerry Cantrell, Alien Ant Farm, Papa Roach... I mean, this guy's got every single one of my favorite rock bands here! It's amazing!" Vector cried.

"I was talking about the investigation. Have you found anything about the storm?" Espio asked tiredly, approaching the desk. He was beginning to think that their coming here was a gigantic waste of time.

"Oh, about that. I only found one thing, but I'm not sure if it's a recording of the local weather channel or if it was picked up by United Federation satellites. Take a look at this," Vector said, sliding into the President's leather chair and bringing up a window on the computer showing what looked like a radar. Lingering at the corner of the radar readout was a faded blotch of green that was slowly but steadily moving closer to the center of the radar. "That was recorded two days before we got caught up in that whole mess with Eggman invading Angel Island. I'm not positive, but that could be the same thing that destroyed our apartment," the crocodile concluded, turning to face Espio.

Espio frowned. "I doubt the President would record a radar readout if it was just a rainstorm. That thing was worse than a tornado," he said.

"I know," Vector frowned. "It's weird. But what if it was more than even a tornado? What if–"

"What if this is like that movie _Independence Day_? What if that big cloud thingie is a giant alien and it wants to kill us all? What if when that red lightning shot up from the ground, the alien was sucking the life out of the world? I mean, the ground was getting all black and crispy wherever the lightning struck, so it could be true, couldn't it? Couldn't it?" Charmy spouted without even pausing to take a breath

Espio moaned, noticing that the bee had already drunk half of a Red Bull. And this wasn't as bad as it got, either.

"Now let's be realistic here charmy," Vector sighed, rubbing his scaly temples. He had no desire to deal with a caffeine-high Charmy.

"Realistic? _Realistic_? HA! I can connect stuff that's happened to us with _loads_ of movies! Remember when those black aliens came to Earth? Almost exactly like _War of the Worlds_! Remember when Eggman made that fake metal version of Sonic that tried to kill us? _Terminator_! Remember when–"

"Remember when I said that this isn't a time for fooling around?" Espio scowled.

"Oh come on Espio! Why don't you guys believe me?" Charmy whined.

"'Cause you're a six-year-old with an overly active imagination, that's why," Vector said, returning to his work with the President's computer.

Charmy just scowled and folded his arms across his chest. "Fine. If you guys aren't going to believe me, I'll just show you myself! There has to be a secret movie stash around here somewhere," he said, buzzing away into the hall. Espio was about to follow him, but figured that Charmy would be fine on his own. He would come back soon enough, and besides, the building was completely deserted. As a matter of fact, the entire city had seemed deserted.

But it wasn't as though Espio could do anything at the moment. They would search for any survivors later.

--

****

Location: Prison Island

Time Remaining: 4 : 15

Shadow grunted in effort, letting Rouge down from the piggyback ride he was giving her. "Well, here we are," he said, rubbing his shoulder.

Rouge looked up at the ruined building that lay in front of them. "I still can't believe that bomb we set off didn't completely destroy this place," she breathed, examining the moss growing over the large G symbol above the front entrance.

Shadow stood where he was for a few moments, then started forward. Rouge hesitated, fearful of the dark, imposing building, but she followed close behind the black hedgehog. Shadow was grateful that the front gate was in ruins, making it easier to enter. He knew that GUN built their bases with only one fortified entrance, forcing enemies into a bottleneck if they tried to invade. It would have been hell trying to get inside if the gate was sealed.

"So, where exactly is this control room?" Rouge asked.

Shadow peered into the gloomy building and looked upwards. "I'm going to guess that it's up there," he said, pointing to a thirty foot tall tower of steel and glass in the center of the building's first floor. Rouge could faintly make out the glass walls of the control room at the very top of the spike.

Rouge gulped nervously. "I hope there's an elevator that we can use to get up there," she said.

Shadow nodded and pointed to a small door at the base of the tower. "I think that might be it," he said. They approached the elevator door, but when Rouge pressed a button on the control panel next to the elevator, the GUN symbol blinked onto the panel screen, along with the words _password required_.

"Are you kidding me? GUN didn't have password protected elevators in the building in Grand Metropolis!" Rouge cried in frustration. "And how is the electrical system even working on this island anyway?"

Shadow stepped back and looked up at the tower again. "The explosion destroyed most of the exterior of this building, but the inside seems almost untouched," he observed. "GUN builds their bases sturdier than I thought. Perhaps the electrical generators they use are inside the buildings. As for the building in Grand Metropolis, it needed to be accessed by non-personnel as well. The postman, for example."

"Lucky for Sonic," Rouge said.

"It was lucky for all of us. Looks like we'll have to take the stairs," Shadow said, pointing to a flight of stairs spiraling up around the control spike. Rouge groaned, but reluctantly followed Shadow up the stairs.

Neither of them really knew how long it took to climb all those stairs. Was it a minute? Half an hour? Time seemed not to be relevant to Rouge at the moment. But she knew one thing: she was exhausted by the time they reached the control room.

Shadow tried the doorknob, but it wouldn't move. "Damn, locked," he muttered. "I didn't think that GUN would leave this door open if you needed a pass code to get in here through the elevator". Shadow drew a Baretta 9 mm pistol from a holster at his waist.

"That wont work–" Rouge began, anticipating what he was about to do.

Shadow took no heed and shot at the doorknob. The bullet ricocheted back, missing Rouge's ears by mere inches.

"God dammit! This is a GUN base, you think that they wouldn't make every freaking thing bullet-proof?" Rouge shouted angrily.

"I had to try something," Shadow muttered, holstering his weapon. He looked at the steel door hinges in interest. "Well," he said after a few moments, "even things that are bullet-proof can be broken". Shadow kicked the door with all his might, leaving it crumpled and bent, but unbroken. Shadow pulled his foot back and kicked the door once more, and with a thundering _crash_, it fell off of its hinges.

Rouge looked rather impressed. "Good job, Hulk," she said, striding into the security room. She walked over to the control panels, glancing at the different lights, buttons, and dials.

"You know how to use GUN technology, right?" Shadow asked, looking over Rouge's shoulder.

"Kind of," Rouge said. "I mean, I can do this without Tails, but it'll still take some time". She sat down in a chair next to the control panel and cracked her knuckles. Rouge punched in a few old access codes that GUN used back when the base was operative. Rouge breathed a sigh of relief as the words _Access Granted_ flashed in green on the small computer screen on the control panel.

"I'm passed the first security program, but there's bound to be more. This might take some time," Rouge said. "Those sentry mechs are all individually programmed to stop intruders, so we can't change that from here. But it does look like they're all connected to one power source. There's this giant underground battery under this building that sends an underground electrical current to a set of charging bays somewhere in the forest." Rouge stopped and clicked on a small icon on the screen. "This shows that the battery doesn't have much juice left in it after all this time. I guess those robots must have somehow adapted to using less power over time. But I think that if I can boost the dose of energy each mech gets during the next recharging period, the batteries might overload and fry," Rouge said.

"Oh yeah? When's the next time those things plug themselves back in?" Shadow asked,

removing an AK-47 assault rifle from a gun stand mounted on the wall. He removed the ammo clip and looked it over; upon seeing that the gun had been fully loaded, Shadow flicked the rifle's safety switch on and locked the clip in place on the underside of the weapon once more.

"You and your guns," Rouge said, rolling her eyes and turning back to the control panel. She scrolled the computer page down, then said, "According to this thing, they'll recharge in about half an hour."

"Can you send that extra boost of energy to the charging ports in that time?" Shadow asked, peering down at the first floor through the rifles sight.

"Easy, but I'd need to stay here and make sure that I released the energy into the ports at just the right time, or else the energy will burn down to nothing," Rouge said.

Shadowed sighed. "Guess we're staying up here then," he said. He was about to take his eye away from the sight when a small movement on the first floor. caught his attention. At first Shadow dismissed it as nothing but the shadows, but when the thing that had moved stepped into the light, Shadow's eyes widened.

"Get down," he whispered to Rouge.

"What?" Rouge asked. Shadow cringed at how loud she had spoken. Fortunately, the Chaos Clone down below hadn't heard. It continued ambling about absent-mindedly down below.

"Be quiet! One of those things is down there!" Shadow hissed, crouching down. Rouge didn't need to be told what "those tings" meant to know what was down there. She sank down lower into the chair, but didn't stop trying to reroute the battery power through the computer.

"What should we do?" Rouge whispered to Shadow.

Shadow scanned the area down below. Although there was only One clone in the building, Shadow could see shadows moving outside the shattered gate. "Well," he said, "I think the most sensible thing to do would be to be as quiet as possible and hope they don't come up here."

Rouge looked down at the chaos Clone. Now it stood stock-still with it's head tilted to one side, as though it were listening with invisible ears. Rouge glanced back at the screen. There were two more security programs she had to pass in order to reroute the power, and it would take immense amounts of concentration to get through both.

Shadow slowly flicked the AK-47 from _safe_ to _semi_. He didn't want to be unprepared if they were spotted. "Here, take this," Shadow said quietly, placing the Baretta pistol next to Rouge's hand on the control panel. When she looked at him quizzically, he just gave her a stern look. "You're going to need that later," he assured her.

Rouge just nodded and turned back to the controls. She was stumped here- usually GUN passwords were only simple four letter words, such as"MOAB", an abbreviation for the term "Mother of all Bombs". This passcode was an eight letter word. Rouge flinched. GUN security updates must have still reached this base automatically. Rouge took a wild guess at what the password was, typing in the word "guardian". After all, GUN stood for _Guardian Units of Nations_.

However, the computer did not accept this as a valid password. A low beeping noise that would have gone unnoticed were the base occupied sounded, signaling the mistake. However, the base was not active, and the beeping echoed off the walls, growing louder every time it repeated.

Shadow froze, then slowly turned his head towards Rouge, his eyes smoldering with anger. "Oops," Rouge said sheepishly.

Shadow passed a hand over his brow in fear and frustration before peering back down at the first floor. The Chaos Clone was nowhere to be seen. Shadow frowned. It couldn't just disappear like that. Could it?

_Crash!_ The wall of the control room exploded in a shower of glistening shards of glass, and Shadow barely had time to react as the clone lunged at him. He leveled the AK-47 and barely managed to squeeze off three shots before the clone landed on top of him. Shadow kicked the creature off and rolled to his feet, holding his rifle at the ready. The clone lay still, with one bullet floating in its liquid stomach, one lodged behind its brain, and one that had gone straight through its neck, ripping the small, spine-like structure in its neck in two.

Rouge stood quickly and looked down to see dozens more Chaos Zeros surging into the building. All of them looked up simultaneously, then rushed for the stairs upon seeing Shadow and Rouge.

"Shit," Shadow cursed, snatching two more AK-47 magazines from the weapons rack and rushing towards the door. Rouge picked up the pistol Shadow had given her and started to follow him, but Shadow stopped her. "You stay here, keep trying to get through the security. I'll try and hold them off," he said.

"But-" Rouge began as Shadow rushed out into the stairwell. "I've never fired at a living thing before!" she cried.

"Well this is a good time to practice!" Shadow shouted over his shoulder. He hurried down the first flight of steps, almost running right into a Chaos Clone. The clone grunted and punched Shadow in the stomach, slamming him into the sharp incline of iron stars behind him. Shadow coughed, but was able to regain his balance. The clone lunged for his throat, but Shadow was prepared. He ducked, then slammed the butt of the rifle into the side of the clone's head, forcing it over the guardrail on the edge of the steps. Shadow watched the clone fall, then explode into a pile of jelly and brains as it hit the floor down below.

Numerous Chaos Clones looked down at their fallen comrade, then narrowed their eyes and renewed their assault with new fury.

Shadow the rifle setting from _semi_ to _auto_, blasting a clone's head in half as it appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He stopped halfway down the next flight of stairs, took aim at the creatures below, and began to shoot them down one by one. One clone bounded clear up from the fourth set of stairs right next to Shadow, kicking him in the side before he had time to react. Shadow slammed against the metal guardrail and almost fell over the edge, but was able to steady himself with one hand, tuck the stock of the machine gun under his armpit, and shoot the creature down with only one hand.

He stood back up quickly, knowing that if he paused for a moment he would be overwhelmed by enemies. Grimacing at the long bruise that the rail had left in his side, Shadow propped the barrel of the gun up on the rail and began to shoot at the clones rushing up the stairs, using the steel rail as a fulcrum for his makeshift gun turret.

A few of the clones that were shot merely fell to the ground, then plucked the bullets from their bodies and hurried forward again, relatively unharmed from the shots. Shadow cursed at the machine gun's inaccuracy, but at the same time, he had to be grateful for its power. If he only had a pistol, he would have only been able to take down a few before they overwhelmed him.

At that thought Shadow's eyes widened. He had hurried down too far, forgetting all about Rouge, who was up in the control room with nothing to defend herself with except for the handgun Shadow had given her. Shadow turned toward the control spike and swore, seeing at least twenty Chaos Clones climbing the spike, their soft, clinging hands suctioning themselves to its smooth, metal surface.. Shadow ran as fast as he could back up the steps; unfortunately he couldn't use his air shoes without risking tripping over a step and flying right over the railing. Shadow was almost at the top when a clone leapt over the railing and grabbed Shadow's head with one massive hand. Shadow blindly shot the AK-47 in all directions until the clone holding him fell to the ground with a jagged line of bullet holes running up from it's chest to it's forehead.

Shadow leapt over the dead body, flew up the last few sets of stairs, and burst into the control room.

Rouge ducked as clone swung its fist downward at her, accidentally smashing the control panel instead. If the clone wasn't trying to kill her Rouge would have thanked it, because the blow seemed to deactivate the computer's stubborn final security program. She raised the pistol and shot the clone through the eye, causing it to slump over onto the console. Rouge heaved it's bloody body onto the floor and leaned over the controls, her fingers flying over the buttons.

Shadow hurried past her to the glass wall of the control room and smashed the butt of the rifle into it. The glass cracked, but did not break.

"That's safety glass, Shadow. GUN isn't that stupid," Rouge said to him.

Shadow muttered a number of four letter curse words and slammed the rifle into the glass again, breaking it this time. Rouge looked like she was about to say something smart, but thought better of it when she saw the look on Shadow's face.

Shadow aimed downward, blasting every clone that dared come into range until the clip ran out of ammo. Shadow calmly removed it and hurled it down at another Chaos Zero, hitting it in the head and knocking it off of the control spike.

"I got it!" Rouge cried suddenly, looking up at Shadow in anticipation.

"You rerouted the power?" Shadow cried, loading the second clip into the AK-47.

"No, we have to wait for that, remember? I got it ready though, all I have to do is send the command and we can get out of here!" Rouge said, firing at a clone that had snuck past Shadow and climbed through a hole in the glass wall.

The clone dodged all of the bullets that would have struck it in the head and absorbed the rest with its liquid body. It lunged at Rouge, and was about to tackle her when Shadow slammed his mechanical left fist into its face, causing the Chaos Clone's head to explode into dozens of globs of jelly and brain matter.

"How much longer do we have to stay here?" Shadow asked, shaking blood and brains off of the metallic claw that covered his real hand.

"About twenty minutes, give or take," Rouge said. She pressed the clip release button on the gun and pulled the magazine out. "It's out," she said thickly to Shadow.

"Put a new one in then," he snarled, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out another clip. Rouge took it and loaded it into her weapon. "You forgot to cock it," Shadow said, peering down at the main entrance.

"Oops," Rouge said. She hadn't had much personal experience with firearms before. Rouge cocked the gun, pulled the hammer back, and waited next to Shadow, hoping that they could hold out until the security droids plugged themselves in again.

****

Location: Grand Metropolis

Time Remaining: 3:47

The entire room thrummed with a low, steady noise that seemed to throb through the very walls. Lasers crisscrossed between every wall, leaving barely an inch between each other. The entire room was illuminated with a soft, green glow, and multiple security cameras were positioned in every corner of the room. Typically this was where GUN stored its most important equipment: weapons, battle plans, machinery, building blueprints, you name it. But that day, everything else had been removed from the room, being replaced by a single object.

The Master Emerald gleamed through the semi-darkness of the room, its rays of light seeming desperate to escape the confines of this room and return to Angel Island, it's home, where it truly belonged.

Chaos-Jet was standing just outside of this room, looking down both ends of the hall for any signs that another person was approaching. He didn't think anyone would, but he had to be absolutely certain. The entire building had seemed dead from the moment he walked in, and Jet didn't like it one bit. Usually GUN kept its bases tightly under wraps, but Chaos-Jet had yet to see a single soldier march stiffly past him, patrolling the corridors for any signs of trouble.

Jet looked down the hall again, then carefully typed four letters into the small control panel next to the door, extending and thinning one of his thick fingers so that he didn't accidentally press two buttons at once. A small _beep_ sounded from the panel, signaling that the password was incorrect.

Chaos-Jet tilted his head to the side, his brain thoroughly processing this turn of events. When he had left the building, the password had been a simple, four letter word: _MOAB_ to be more precise. Now the console required an eight letter password. Chaos-Jet settled on the fact that GUN had updated its security system while he was gone, changing the password as well.

But as opposed to Rouge's pragmatic way of solving this same problem on Prison Island, Chaos-Jet wasted no time in letting his sensitive liquid fingers slide through the small crack in the center of the metal blast door and forcing it open with his bare hands.

A small alarm in the ceiling began buzzing, and an emotionless male voice began blaring, "Intruder alert, intruder alert, high security holding facility, intruder alert!"

Chaos-Jet quickly entered the room, knowing that his antics would soon attract unwanted attention. He stopped in front of the wall of lasers that blocked him off from the Master Emerald. Nerves floating on the surface of his liquid skin detected intense amounts of heat radiating from these lasers. They weren't to trigger alarms: these security devices were built to kill.

Jet was formulating a plan of action in his new Chaos brain when a thick, clammy arm wrapped around his neck.

The weight of another clone on top of him drove Jet to the ground, and he grasped its wrist and shoulder with his powerful hands, attempting in vain to throw his opponent off. The Chaos Clone on top of Jet showed no mercy, tightening its chokehold on his neck.

Although the Chaos Clones had no veins, the thick, gooey membrane that held them together was flexible enough to squeeze enough of the liquid inside them into one part of their body, causing it to explode. Right now, Jet's head was at its bursting point. With one last strain, Chaos-Jet reached up, grasped the other clone's head with both of his hands, and flipped it over his shoulders, smashing it into the floor. Before the other clone had time to move, Jet had already picked it up and shoved its head into the crisscrossing lasers, slicing its brain into twelve pieces.

Chaos-Jet roughly tossed the headless clone to the floor and rolled his shoulders, feeling the extra liquid in his head flow back into its rightful place in his body. He took a few steps forward and knelt down, measuring the distance between the floor and the laser lowest to the ground. It was only half an inch, but that was more than enough space for Jet.

He backed up a few steps, then slowly began to let himself melt into a shimmering, green puddle on the floor. The puddle that was Jet oozed forward, easily passing under all of the lasers guarding the Master Emerald. The liquid crawled forward, moving as though an unseen force was pulling it towards its destination. When it reached the pedestal that the Master Emerald was set upon, three tendrils of liquid slowly snaked upwards out of the puddle and gently plucked the Master Emerald out of its place.

GUN had designed the lasers to work in sync with a tiny switch built into the top of the pedestal: a small GUN sentry drone would place the desired object on the pedestal, and when the object depressed the switch, the lasers would flicker on. The same worked when the object was taken out of place, only reversed. If the object were removed, there would be no more need to guard anything in the room, and the lasers would flicker out. This system insured that the object being guarded could not be harmed by the lasers. Right now, it also ensured Jet an easy path out of the room.

He oozed back into his normal form, and was about to start out of the room when he noticed that the Master Emerald was beginning to shrink in size. If it hadn't been for the faint ghosts of the original Chaos Zero's memories in Chaos-Jet's brain, he would have had absolutely no clue what was happening. But the original Chaos had known that the Master Emerald could read the DNA of its guardian, allowing him or her to reassemble the emerald if it were ever broken, or the emerald would shrink to a smaller size, allowing the guardian to carry it easily.

The Master Emerald must have read the Chaos DNA in Jet's body, recognizing him as one of its past guardians. Jet didn't stop to wonder what other abilities the emerald could grant him; he clutched it tightly in his hand and rushed out into the corridor, hellbent on getting the emerald to the Rogues in time.

Jet was almost at the end of the hallway when something slammed into him from the side, knocking him onto the floor. Jet quickly slid right under the Chaos Clone that was on top of him, slipping right between its legs, then whirling around and grabbing it by the nape of its neck. The clone squirmed in pain, but Chaos-Jet refused to let go; he lifted it straight off the ground and smashed its face into the wall five times, popping at least twelve blood vessels in the creature's brain. When Jet dropped it to the floor, it began to convulse as blood leaked from its brain into the rest of its body. Jet didn't stop to see if it died. He whirled about and continued on his way.

He rounded the corner, both of his jelly-like feet causing him to slide across the floor a meter before coming to a stop. Two Chaos Clones rushing to defend the elevator mirrored this action as they burst through another door, hurrying to see what the trouble was.

The two clones quickly glanced at the Master Emerald clutched in Jet's hand, then at each other. As if the same thoughts were running through both of their minds, both clones bent their legs and bounded forward to attack Jet.

Jet's liquid eyes seemed to smoulder with determination. He dashed forward, moving with far more grace than the other clones, and dove straight into the outstretched arms of one of the Chaos Clones. Both of them were sent to the floor, rolling and punching each other, until Jet managed to flip off of the other clone to put some distance between them. His blue eyes scanned the area thoroughly. The clone he had just tackled lay on the floor to his right, while the other was in between him and the elevator.

Something moved in the corner of Jet's eye, and before he had time to react, the clone to his right had smashed his body up against the wall and was groping at his throat. Jet shook the dizziness out of his head, then brought his fist down on the clone's elbow so force fully that its arm was torn from the rest of its body.

The clone staggered backwards, clutching the stump of arm that remained, and Jet saw his opportunity to attack. He lunged forward, grabbed the clone by the neck, and shoved the shrunken Master Emerald into its head.

Had the Master Emerald been a Chaos Emerald, the clone's arm would have expanded and the emerald would have floated into its forearm. But the Master Emerald activated as soon as it came in contact with the liquid Chaos Energy composing the clones body, cancelling out all traces of that energy with it's own power. The clone jerked twice, then exploded in a shower of goo and brains, and Chaos-Jet reached out his arm and caught the bloody emerald as it fell to the ground before turning and making a mad dash for the elevator.

He was less than a yard from the steel elevator doors when the other clone intercepted him, tackling him from behind with enough force to propel them both forward, smashing right through the dual doors. Both Chaos-Jet and the clone were sent tumbling head over heels down the seemingly endless elevator shaft, their arms flailing to catch ahold of something to halt their descent. Jet reached out and grabbed onto the steel cable connected to one of the elevators below, but his momentum was too great for him to stop, and he began to slide down the wire, inches of the gel in his hands being scraped away each second. He judged his timing very carefully, and when the next door leading to another floor came into view, he swung off of the cable and grabbed onto the thin ledge in front of the doors with one hand, struggling to claw his way up to the door.

Jet rested one elbow on the ledge, then reached up towards the door, stretching his arm to its limit so that he could touch it-

And then an incredible weight grasped him by the ankle, causing him to slip. Jet looked down to see the other clone grasping his leg with both of its powerful hands, attempting to pull him down from his relatively safe perch on the narrow ledge. Chaos-Jet struggled and squirmed, bot the clone would not let go. Finally the weight became too much, and he slipped down from the ledge and plunged into the black abyss.

--

**Author's Note (I love these, can you tell?): **Yes, I know that I told a few of you loyal readers that this would be the final chapter, and I'm INCREDIBLY sorry that it isn't. But either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, since it was probably the most action-packed one yet. More action to come next chapter!

Please review!


	11. Always and Forever

****

Location: Grand Metropolis

Time Remaining: 3: 25

Jet had to think quickly or else he knew that his brains would soon be splattered across the bottom of the elevator shaft. The clone he was brawling with interrupted his train of thought with a savage backhand blow to the side of Jet's head.

Jet twisted in midair and planted both of his feet on the Chaos Clone's chest, then kicked off, sending the clone smashing into the wall and Jet into another set of elevator doors. The steel doors crumpled under the force, and Jet fell through them into the third story main corridor. The clone in the elevator shaft twisted and tried to grab ahold of something, but it was too late. It had already begun to fall down the elevator shaft towards it's imminent (and most certainly painful) death.

Chaos-Jet slowly got to his feet, the Master Emerald still clutched tightly in one fist. He lumbered over to a large window looking out over the city and looked down, trying to judge whether or not he should take the elevator down and risk being intercepted, or merely trying to make his way down the side of the building.

Eventually Jet came to a decision. With one powerful fist, he punched through the glass window and swung out onto the narrow ledge outside. His soft, clinging hands were able to find crevices in the wall that no human could even see. He was about halfway to the ground when a rapid thumping noise interrupted his train of thought. Jet tilted his head to one side, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. He had just realized what was happening when a Chaos Clone dove through one of the windows at full speed, tackling Jet right off the side of the building.

Jet's right hand unclenched slightly- it wasn't much, but it was just enough to let enough air resistance catch hold of the Master Emerald for it to slip out of his hand. Jet swiped at it, but the clone grabbed both of his arms and pinned them to his sides. Jet knew he didn't have much time before he smashed into the ground, so he quickly rolled over in mid-air, head-butted the other Chaos Clone, and wrenched his arms free of it's grasp. Seconds later, they crashed into the pavement, and the clone under Jet splattered across the ground. Luckily t cushioned him enough so that his head didn't explode, but he was still quite shaken up. Jet quickly shook the dizziness away, leapt to his feet, and caught the Master Emerald as it came down.

If Chaos-Jet could grin, he would have. But instead of standing there and gloating, he turned and began to run down the street, leaping over cars faster and more graceful than an Olympic hurdler. He had already taken much more time than he should have.

--

****

Location: Tails' Workshop

Time Remaining: 3: 20

"Are you finished with that yet Storm?" Tails said, hurriedly finishing tying a trip wire across the doorway to his mansion.

Storm huffed, his face beet red, as he finished stacking the heaviest items in the workshop in front of the wooden back door of the tiny building.

Knuckles, being in no condition to be helping anybody, was resting in the corner, holding an ice pack over his nose.

Wave was busy welding pieces of scrap metal onto the smashed door of the workshop. She had already created and installed steel shutters for all of the windows, and this seemed to be the last thing she needed to help out with. Wave handed the welding torch back to Cream, who in turn handed it to Cheese, who fluttered over to Tails and dropped it in the kitsune's hands.

"Thanks," Tails said, kneeling down and securing a welding mask over his face. On the floor were an assortment of different objects and tools. Tails placed a Zippo lighter on the floor and very lightly shot a small flame at the back of it. The plastic melted just enough for Tails to be able to stick it to a flammable aerosol can. Tails lifted the welding mask away from his face, then flicked the lighter open and tapped the spray nozzle of the can lightly, sending a jet of blue flames across the room.

"Watch it! Jesus!" Wave cried, jumping out of the way of the flame.

"Oops! Sorry," Tails said, grinning sheepishly. "Well that works perfectly. Cheese, are you done rigging that trip wire?"

The tiny Chao examined the fishing line that had been strung across the doorway and attached to an M84 flashbang grenade that Shadow had conveniently left behind, then gave Tails a thumbs up, signaling that everything was okay.

"Coming through, shrimpy," Wave said gruffly, heaving the large metal door over the wire and fitting it into the doorframe. "Welding torch," she said, holding her hand out to Tails, who tossed her the tool deftly. "I hope your little defense system works," the swallow muttered as she began welding the door shut.

"Well it was originally meant to fend off any of Eggman's mechs if he tried to invade my home, so it won't be perfect, but it should work fine," Tails said. He had built an electromagnetic pulse onto the roof of the workshop to deactivate anything that operated on electricity. Namely Robotnik's Egg Pawns. That would be completely useless.

However, Tails had buried explosive charges in the ground encircling the workshop, and had programmed about a dozen GUN sentry robots to attack anything that seemed to have hostile intentions. It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

"Jeez, where in the world is Jet? It's been longer than thirty-five minutes already," Wave muttered, stepping back from the steel door as she finished welding it completely closed.

"Well he's either dead or on his way," Tails said, taking six pairs of mirrored goggles out of a toolbox. "Here you go," he said, giving a set of goggles to Vanilla, Cream, Storm, and Wave. He tossed one to Knuckles, who muttered his thanks and put them on.

"The blast of that grenade usually blinds a person's sight for about five seconds, but Chaos sees things by detecting heat sources in the environment. The heat from the grenade _should_ fry the eyes of any clone in range, but I'm not completely positive. I've never done anything like this before," Tails said.

Cream blinked, worried. "What about Cheese?" she asked. "Won't he be blinded by the grenade?"

"Don't worry, I've got..." Tails paused for dramatic effect, then reached into a small toolbox, pulled out a set of headphones, and placed them on the tiny Chao's head.

"Nice. Can I have some headphones to protect my eyes too?" Wave snickered.

"You'll wish you could, but that's the only pair I have," Tails grinned. He pressed a small, red button on the right side of the headphones and immediately a smooth, black-tinted shield slid out of them to cover Cheese's face, and a rounded metal sheet slid out from the other side of the device to protect the back of Cheese's head. The headphones had transformed into a protective helmet that was just a bit too big for the Chao.

Inside the helmet, a digital screen sputtered to life, showing Cheese the world beyond the helmet. He turned his head and Cream's worried face appeared on the screen.

"How does it feel, Cheese?" she asked timidly. The helmet blocked out the sound of her voice, but small microphones attached to the chin of the helmet picked up the sound waves and carried them to speakers inside the helmet.

_"How does it feel, Cheese?"_ a slightly metallic version of Cream's voice said inside the helmet.

"Chao Chao!" Cheese squeaked happily. The same effect worked on Cheese's voice, only in reverse. The microphone inside the helmet transferred the sound of the Chao's voice to the exterior of the helmet.

"Alright, so it's not just a set of headphones," Wave said. "But how's that going to protect his eyes?"

"There's a plasma screen inside it that I modified to automatically filter out any rays of light that could harm a person's eyes. Aim a laser pointer at his face and it won't even show up through the screen," Tails said. "There is also synthetic sponge-like padding around the area where his ears are. Micro filaments that react with sound waves are woven into the sponge, and when the pitch of a sound rises above a certain level, the filaments contract and the pores in the sponge seal, blocking out any sound that wouldn't normally penetrate the helmet. The microphones on the outside of the helmet also shut down immediately upon recording a high-pitched sound as an added safety feature. I placed the padding on areas where a human, Chao, or Mobian's ears would be."

"Woah," Knuckles rasped from the corner.

"Wow Tails, you made that all by yourself?" Cream said in awe. Cheese rotated his helmeted head and squeaked his thanks.

"Well, I did get a lot of the equipment from GUN," Tails said, trying to be as humble as he could. "It's also got a two small oxygen tanks built into the back of it that can last about fifteen minutes each, and is also heat resistant and bulletproof," Tails said.

"Well..." Wave said slowly, trying to think of sarcastic comment. "Whatever. Looks cool," she said finally.

"Thanks. We should really get ready, those things should be here soon," Tails said, reaching into a plastic bag and pulling out six pairs of earplugs. "The sound of the blast disrupts the fluid in a person's ear canals, making sounds appear to come from hundreds of different places at once. These should help a little."

Tails handed each set of earplugs to every person in the room. Everyone stopped their ears with them, then secured their goggles over their eyes.

"Is everyone okay?" Tails asked.

"What?" Storm shouted.

"I said is everyone-"

_BOOM!_ The door buckled as three Chaos Clones hurled themselves at the door in unison. Everyone stood at the back of the room. Tails snatched up a small buzz saw meant for cutting metal beams, Cheese hovered protectively in front of Vanilla and Cream, Storm and Wave clutched their Extreme Gear, preparing to jump onto them at any second, and Knuckles raised his fists and stood in a fighting position. He knew he didn't stand much of a chance, but one thing was for certain: no matter how beaten or bloodied he was, Knuckles was not going down without a fight.

_BOOM! _The entire workshop shuddered under the force. The steel door bent under the pressure, then burst open. Immediately ten Chaos Clones were in the room. They lunged for the seven companions simultaneously, but were immediately blinded by an intense flash of light that came from the stun grenade laying in the corner.

Tails, Wave, Storm, Cream, Vanilla, and Knuckles all flinched as the loud _bang_ from the grenade slightly penetrated the foam rubber of their earplugs, but the mirrored lenses of their goggles reflected most of the light from the grenade away from their eyes. Cheese tilted his head to the side, wondering if the grenade had exploded or not.

The Chaos Clones weren't so lucky. As soon as the grenade exploded the leader clapped its massive hands over its face and emitted a bloodcurdling, bubbling scream of pain as its retinas were fried.

Wasting no time, Wave tore off her goggles, pulled out her earplugs, and leapt onto her _Type-W _board, tearing through the air faster than anyone could see and smashing the leader clone in the face with the tail of her board.

Storm followed suit, but body slammed the nearest clone into the wall before jumping onto his board.

Tails ducked as a clone blindly struck out in his direction, then brandished the saw, cutting through the clone's forehead. He stepped out of the way as it collapsed to the ground, then rushed over to the workshop window to see dozens more clones rushing over the top of the hill in his backyard. Tails staggered away from the window and picked up a small remote control. He punched a red button on the remote, and flames immediately leapt up from the ground outside as the land mines encircling his workshop exploded, taking at least half of the attacking clones with them.

Tails flicked another switch on the side of the remote and three GUN attack androids rolled out of the hangar that housed the _Tornado III_. They unfolded their long, steel-plated limbs from their torsos and extended their arms. Bullets began spewing from the gigantic Gatling guns attached to their forearms, mowing down seven Chaos Clones in less than a second. But for every clone that was killed, four more seemed to appear. After only two minutes, the GUN battle androids lay in a heap of twisted metal and flashing sparks.

Tails cried out in fear as a clone grasped his arm in its bone-crushing grip, lifting him off of his feet. Wave heard his yell and spun in midair to punch the clone in the side of the head. It spun 360 degrees, accidentally throwing Tails into one of the steel shutters covering the windows. The metal bent under the force of the kitsune's body and Tails fell to the floor, desperately trying to stay conscious.

Tails tried to pick himself up, but a blinding jolt of pain flashed up his spine and he crumpled onto the floor, sweating profusely. He opened his eyes slowly only to see that a grey mist seemed to be descending over his vision. Knuckles was backed up into a corner, shielding his bruised face with his arms. Wave and Storm were beginning to become overwhelmed by the endless flow of enemies, and Cream and Cheese were hovering over the crowd, dodging attacks and hurling themselves at any clones that dared come close to them or Vanilla.

With his last ounce of strength, Tails craned his neck upwards and saw a flash of green in the doorway. A clone fell to the floor with its head twisted around backwards and Jet, the Master Emerald still in his hand, leapt into the room and joined the fray.

_He doesn't know what to do with the emerald_, Tails thought. _He doesn't know that it has to go into the machine_. Tails licked his lips and shouted, "Put the emerald in the machine!" hoarsely to Wave. It was the last thing he did before he passed out.

Wave turned to look at the young fox, then glanced at the large machine that was meant to harness the Master Emerald's energy. "Jet!" she shouted.

Chaos-Jet smashed a Chaos Clone's head in and turned to his friend inquisitively.

"The emerald! Put the emerald in the machine!" Wave cried, pointing to the large device. Without hesitation, Jet leapt over five clones and jammed the Master Emerald into the machine the way a pro basketball player would slam dunk a basketball into a hoop. He looked at the large red button on the side of the machine briefly, then punched it in with his large forefinger.

Immediately the Master Emerald began to emit a low, loud humming noise that seemed to sooth every clone in the room. Slowly but surely, they all began to stop fighting and stare at the emerald in awe. After a few moments the emerald started to glow softly, and the clones began to sway back and forth in unison.

Chaos-Jet blinked, as though he were dizzy. Suddenly Wave realized that Jet was a clone too. He would be affected by the machine as well. "Jet!" she said, pushing through the crowd of Chaos Clones to meet up with him. Storm had apparently realized the same thing, and was already at his friend's side.

"You g-gotta leave here J-Jet. You g-guh-gotta," the albatross stammered worriedly. But both Wave and Storm knew that he would never have the time to get away. Even the clones that were outside had stopped their attack.

Jet shook his head slowly. He seemed to know what was happening, and he wasn't going to run. If he were to die, he would die standing by his teammates. His friends. His family. As a soft breeze began to blow in through the open door, Jet placed two shaking hands on Wave and Storm's shoulders.

_"Friend,"_ he whispered once again, looking at both of them in turn. Wave felt her eyes brim with tears.

"Jet..." she said slowly.

Jet stared at her, his blue eyes glassy and serine. _"Friend,"_ he said once again. The wind picked up speed and swirled around the Chaos Clones, dissolving their bodies like a cube of sugar in hot tea. In moments, the room was empty save for Wave, Storm, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, Knuckles, and Tails.

The Master Emerald's light flickered dimly, then went out, leaving the room in complete darkness.

--

**Author's Note (I just can't seem to stop): **I know exactly what you're thinking: FINALLY! A shorter chapter! True, this is a lot shorter than usual, at only about half the length of my usual chapters, but I figured you readers needed something. Hope you enjoyed, and in case anybody is wondering, I have already written about five page sinto the next chapter. I won't say anything beyond that.


	12. A Ticking Clock

**Location: Central City**

**Time Remaining: 2: 45**

_When the world ends,_

_Collect your things,_

_Your comin' with me,_

_When the world ends,_

_You tuckle up yourself with me,_

_Watch it as the stars disappear to nothing,_

_The day the world is over,_

_We'll be lyin' in bed._

_I'm gonna rock you like a baby when the cities fall,_

_We will rise as the buildings crumble,_

_Float there and watch it all,_

_Amidst the burning, we'll be churning,_

_You know love will be our wings,_

_The passion rises up from the ashes,_

_When the world ends-_

"Hey, I'm trying to talk to you!" Espio said in frustration, liftingthe headphones away from Vector's ears.

"Huh?" the crocodile grunted in confusion. "Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there."

Espio raised one scaly eyebrow at his friend. Apparently Vector had gotten bored with his investigation and had decided to listen to one of the President's Dave Matthews Band CDs. "Did you find anything out?" Espio asked.

Vector sighed and turned to the President's computer. "Well- no, not really, no. The only real clue is that satellite projection of that cloud thing. Besides that I really have no clue what else we should do." The croc glanced around the room and frowned. "Hey, have you been keeping an eye on Charmy? He really shouldn't be wandering around a place like this by himself."

"Why not? He can handle himself. In a pinch," Espio added quickly. "The worst thing he could do is drink a few sodas from the kitchen."

Vector shrugged and looked back at the computer, "I dunno, I just don't want him to fall into a toilet or something. Did you know that there are thirty-two bathrooms in this building?" He asked.

Espio, who was usually calm and collected, had to snort at the ridiculousness of the idea. "I don't think even Charmy is that dull, Vec, and there are thirty-five bathrooms in this place, not thirty-two," he said.

"All the more reason to worry!"

--

Charmy buzzed through the halls of the ninth floor of the White House, humming softly to himself. He had already had his fill of this trip, and was beginning to get bored. He was tired of seeing walls lined with portraits of past presidents and vice presidents, and some people that he had never even heard about before. Charmy let out a loud, exasperated sigh. The noise bounced off all of the walls and echoed down the empty corridor as though he were in an underground tunnel.

"Woah!" Charmy said in surprise.

_"Woah!"_ his voice sounded back to him. Charmy grinned in delight. As long as he had something to do for only a few minutes, he wouldn't have to be worried about boredom.

"Coolio McGee!" Charmy shouted down the hall. _"Coolio McGee... Coolio McGee..."_ echoed his voice. "Hot fudge sundae with a cherry on top!" Charmy bleated. _"Hot fudge sundae with a cherry on top! Hot fudge sundae wit ha cherry on top!"_ called the echo.

Charmy laughed. "Awesome!" he cried in delight, buzzing forward. He wondered if Vector and Espio could hear him. _Probably not_, he thought. Then, slowly, an idea began to form in his small bee brain. Vector and Espio didn't like it when he swore... but then again, they weren't around at the moment, were they?

Charmy rubbed his hands together in glee. "Um... crap!" he shouted down the hall hesitantly. Then with a bit more confidence after Vector's voice didn't come hollering at him from the other end of the corridor. "Damn! Hell! When I say weakass, you say bitch! Weakass..." Charmy paused, as if waiting for his echo to answer. "Bitch!" he finally said. "Weakass-"

Charmy stopped abruptly as a bubbling hiss answered him. "Um..." the bee said slowly, nervously flying backwards a few feet . The bubbling noise grew louder and louder, and soon it became accompanied by the sounds of heavy feet being dragged along the floor. Charmy stayed rooted to the spot, paralyzed with fear. All sorts of horrific creatures began shaping themselves in his mind: a gigantic troll covered in warts and wielding a club the size of a tree trunk, a tentacled slime ball with a gaping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, a squat, filthy little creature with twisted, lumpy features and teeth jutting out from its jaw. Finally the thing came into view, and Charmy was shocked to see that it was another Chaos Clone, much like the one that had tried to attack them earlier.

Charmy began to breathe rapidly, his eyes darting from the clone to the opposite end of the hall. It hadn't noticed him yet. Perhaps he could slip away while he still had the chance.

Suddenly the clone _roared_ and dashed at Charmy, its thick arms swinging, apelike, at its sides. A bewildered and terrified Charmy flew backwards and bumped into a small table with a vase full of morning glories on it, knocking the vase onto the floor. Ignoring the _crash_ that it made, the six-year-old bee turned and began buzzing away from the attacking clone as fast as he could. Sonic, Espio, or Shadow would have been ashamed at the speed at which Charmy flew, but for the young bee, he was moving faster than he had in years. The last time Charmy had flown that fast was when he was chased all the way to the CDA by a blood-crazed Rottweiler. He had only been four then.

Charmy whirled around a corner, his breath exploding from his small lungs. The clone, who was much less nimble than Charmy, smashed into the wall before bounding down the hall, hot on Charmy's tail.

Charmy gasped in relief as he rounded the corner. Not ten meters away was the large, wooden door to the Oval Office. It was wide open, and Charmy could see Vector and Espio studying the President's computer inside.

"Guys!" was all Charmy managed to cry out. His shout echoed off the walls, turning into, _"Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys..."_Vector opened his mouth to ask Charmy what was wrong as he burst into the room, but the answer became apparent as Vector caught sight of the Chaos Clone behind Charmy.

Acting on pure crocodile instinct, Vector dove over the President's desk, slammed both doors shut, and held them closed with his hands while he searched for a lock. "Espio, what are you doing? Help me!" Vector cried as the door shuddered under a powerful blow. It wouldn't hold for long.

"I'm trying!" Espio said frantically. Although Vector didn't see Espio trying to help, the chameleon was searching the President's desk for anything that could be a control panel for the rooms security system. In his hurry, Espio accidentally knocked a picture frame off of the desk. He quickly glanced at it and saw that it was a photo of Sonic, who was grinning merrily and giving the camera the thumbs up, while Shadow glowered at the photographer in the background. Espio was about to overlook it when he noticed a tiny green light coming from the corner of the frame, where the picture had been pushed aside slightly. Espio slid the photo out of the frame and tucked it into his spiked wristband before turning the picture frame sideways to examine it.

Actually the picture frame wasn't much of a picture frame at all. It was covered with a assortment of touch pads, buttons, and switches. Groping for a solution to the problem, Espio hit the button that said "shield". A red light flashed above the doorway, and Vector had just enough time to jump out of the way before a blast shield made of metal alloy slid down and blocked the entrance.

Espio jumped slightly as the same type of shields slid shut over the semicircle of windows behind the President's desk, with one small strip of the shield removed to allow a person to view the city and the long, wide, white-washed terrace in front of the White House.

Espio was about to slump down in the chair when Vector grabbed him by the collar and shook him furiously. "_Jesus Christ Espio, you could've given me a warning before you did that!_" he shouted.

"I didn't know that was going to happen!" Espio said in his defense, pushing Vector away gently. "Plus, you're fine. So what's the matter?"

"What's the matter? That door almost chopped my hands off!" Vector cried.

Charmy sighed and hopped up onto the desk. "At least you weren't pounded by that thing," he said. Vector muttered something under his breath and strode over to the shielded door, putting his ear against it. He could still hear the Chaos Clone pounding furiously at the door from outside. The mahogany door was probably wood pulp by now, Vector reasoned.

"Well, it looks like we're stuck here for now. Any idea what we should do Espio?" Vector asked, turning around.

Espio was peering outside through the small slit in the window shielding. "Vec," he said slowly.

"What?"

"You should probably take a look at this," the chameleon said shakily. He stood back and let Vector look outside.

For a moment the crocodile had no clue what Espio was talking about, then he looked down to see hundreds of blue, translucent creatures scrambling over each other to reach the front doors of the White House. Moving as though a wave of liquid were surging forward, the horde of Chaos Clones rushed forward and crashed through the front doors and began bounding down the halls in search of the Chaotix.

A few of the clones paused outside the building, squinting up at the windows of the Oval Office. Their heat-detecting eyes spotted a sliver of life emanating from the slit in the alloy shield behind the windows, and the clones jumped onto the walls and started to climb.

"Uh oh," Vector said.

"What's that? Lemme see it! Is it a video game controller? What system is it for? What games do you think the President has?" Charmy asked Espio eagerly.

"Knock it off!" Espio said impatiently, swatting Charmy out of his way. _Let's see... God, I don't know what any of these buttons do. Hope this does something good,_ Espio thought, flipping a small, white switch on the corner of the miniature control panel. Outside the oval office, two carbine gun turrets unfolded from the ceiling, the infrared cameras on their underside rotating to find any enemies. Unlike GUN battle robots, these turrets couldn't distinguish between an ally and an adversary, and would shoot literally anything that moved. The two turrets sensed something underneath them and pivoted to see the Chaos Clone still hammering at the door to the oval office.

Vector, Espio, and Charmy simultaneously jumped as they heard two rapid bursts of gunfire come from the other side of the door. Outside, the clone slumped against the door with twelve holes in its head and upper torso.

"What was that?" Charmy asked timidly. Vector and Espio looked at each other.

"There's no way to tell at the moment," Vector said after a few moments. "Right now let's just try to make a plan to get out of here. Got any ideas Espio?"

Espio blinked. "No, not really," he said dumbly.

Vector nodded slowly. "Well then in that case, we're pretty much screwed," he said.

"I got it! Since that remote control seems to control the White House defense system, how about we use it to call up a bunch of GUN battle robots to blast through these things, call up GUN to see if they can get here and help us, and hitch a ride to safety with them?" Charmy said.

"Did you just think of that yourself?" Espio asked the bee in shock.

"Yep!"

"Wow. I can't believe you actually remembered to take your medicine this morning," Vector said. Before Charmy could explain that he actually hadn't, Vector took the control board from Espio and looked aver the various buttons and switches. "A lot of these aren't marked," He observed.

"The President probably had the controls memorized so that any body who wanted to cause trouble wouldn't know what they were doing," Espio said.

"Yeah, maybe," Vector muttered. The only buttons that were marked were two green buttons marked "shield" and "distress". The shield was already up, and they were in distress, so Vector decided to press the "distress" button. Vector heard a crash and more gunshots outside the Oval Office.

Suddenly a loud, female voice blared from the intercom on the President's desk. "You have activated your GUN distress beacon, Mister President. Please remain calm, as we are dispatching ten GUN special forces units to the White House as I speak. They will be there in less than ten minutes," the voice said.

Vector looked at Espio. "You think we can hold on for ten minutes?" he asked

"That depends on how long these shields can hold- duck!" Espio shouted suddenly.

Not waiting to see what Espio was worried about, Vector dropped to the floor and the chameleon quickly flicked a shuriken out of his spiked wrist gauntlet and spun it at the thin slit in the window shield. There was a shriek from outside, and Vector turned just in time to see a Chaos Clone hand lose its grasp on the window and plummet to its death below. The slit in the shield had been forced open a few inches.

"Phew, that was close," Vector said, standing up and brushing dust from the scales on his arms and chest.

"We're not out of this yet, remember that," Espio said. He looked back at the President's desk. _Ten minutes, huh?_ the chameleon thought. _I guess we can last that long. We've seen worse from one of Charmy's sugar rushes anyway_.

--

**Location: Prison Island**

**Time Remaining: 2: 30**

"Twenty minutes huh?" Shadow grunted, climbing over a pile of rubble to reach a weapons rack on the wall. "'Twenty minutes Shadow, give or take. It'll only take twenty minutes until the robots recharge!'" he said, mockingly mimicking Rouge's voice. "How hard could that be, eh? Hold out a little bit, then we can get the hell out of here. Well it _didn't quite happen that way did it?"_ Shadow shouted up at the control spike in the center of the room.

"It was only an estimate!" Rouge's voice echoed back down indignantly.

"Ah, you bitch," Shadow muttered. He took a rocket launcher down from the weapons rack, aimed briefly at a pack of charging Chaos Clones, and fired. The recoil of the weapon blew Shadow clean off his feet, and he was sent rolling down the small mountain of bodies and debris that had built up on the first floor of the control room. "Gotcha," he growled, painfully picking himself up off of the ground.

Here they were, almost an hour after the Chaos Clones had first begun attacking, and the robots on the island still hadn't halted to recharge their batteries. _Either Rouge was way off,_ Shadow thought, picking an army shotgun up from the ground,_ or they're really busy with something else at the moment._

--

Sonic gasped for breath, his legs still blurring against the soft soil. He couldn't go on like this. He had been running back and forth across the island practically since the moment they had gotten there, and he was beginning to feel exhaustion seep into his joints. But he was determined to keep on going. If he couldn't distract the guard robots long enough, they would turn their attention back to the missile silo, where Sonic had left Amy to search for the final Chaos Emerald.

Sonic looked behind him for a split second to see if the GUN sentry droids were still on his tail. Nothing. Sonic sighed and relief and looked back ahead a quarter of a second before his face slammed into the outstretched arm of one of the guard robots. Sonic's feet flew out from under him, and he was sent rolling heels over head down a sharp drop in the ground. Sonic bounced off a boulder and landed face first in what very well could have been a pile of animal dung.

Sonic coughed and spat, struggling to wipe the smelly gunk away from his eyes. After a few moments he looked up- and found himself staring into the gleaming red eyes of a GUN guard robot. Its metallic arm snapped forward and the robot trained the Gatling gun on it at Sonic's head. The cerulean hedgehog had less than a second to roll to the side before the robot depressed the trigger of the gun. Bullets gouged into the soil centimeters from Sonic's body, following him as he rolled. Sonic reached the base of a tree, did a reverse handspring off the ground, and bounced off of the trunk in a flying kick at the raging robot's head.

The metal alloy neck snapped back, and its next shot swept wide. The .50 cal bullets punched seven gaping holes in the trunk of a tree. It swayed for a moment, then came crashing down on top of the robot as Sonic leapt to the side.

"Phew! That was close," Sonic said. He had to chuckle as he glanced downwards, because his words could be taken in two different ways: one, he had almost been turned into Swiss cheese by a robot with anger management problems; and two, he had nearly landed in the pile of animal manure once again.

--

**Author's Note:** Yeah, I finally decided to shorten the lengths of my chapters from eighteen pages to ten pages. Hope it's easier to read. Also, I am SO sorry for dragging the conclusion of this story out. I have no clue what's wrong with me. The song lyrics featured in this chapter are from the song "When the World Ends" by Dave Matthews Band. All copyrights go to them for that.

Location: Central City

Time Remaining: 2: 45


	13. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Military

****

Location: Central City

Time Remaining: 2:23

By the time the Chaotix heard GUN arrive at the White House, all five of the window shields were twisted and bent from hundreds of fists pounding on them. The door had long since been torn to shreds, and both Vector and Espio stood at the entrance, ready for anything. Both gun turrets outside the doors had been ripped off by stampeding Chaos Clones, so neither of them had to worry about bullets being fired at them.

"Are they gone yet?" Charmy asked, looking out from under the President's desk, where Vector had told him to hide.

"Get back Charmy!" Espio shouted as another clone lunged at him. Espio ducked to the left, kneed the clone in the stomach, and then kicked it in the neck in quick succession. The clone staggered backwards into Vector's outstretched arms.

The crocodile hooked both of his arms under the clone's armpits, then locked his hands together behind it's head. The clone thrashed violently, but couldn't get out of the headlock Vector dropped to the floor and smashed the creatures face into the ground, killing it almost instantly.

"Are techniques like that really necessary?" Espio asked his counterpart.

"Hey, you use your style, I use mine," the croc said, brushing the blue, jelly-like material off of his arms. Actually, he _had_ to use that technique. Vector knew that Espio was skilled in various forms of hand to hand combat, but all Vector knew was wrestling. And drunken boxing, perhaps, but right now he was sober as could be.

"Another one on your right," Espio warned Vector suddenly, grunting as he caught the fist of one of the Chaos Clones in both of his hands.

Vector whirled around and smashed his elbow into the clone's face. _I think I might be warming up to fighting again,_ Vector thought, grinning faintly. He grabbed another clone by the wrist as it aimed a punch at him, then hurled it into the wall.

Outside, five GUN tanks rolled towards the White House. The cannon on one of the tanks leveled off with the pig pile of Chaos Clones in front of the door to the White House, then blasted them into oblivion.

Vector and Espio staggered backwards as the building shook, and Vector had to use the President's desk to steady himself.

"What was that?" Charmy asked, once again poking his head out from under the desk.

Vector blinked. "I dunno," he said. He glanced at the digital clock on the President's desk. The small, red numbers flashed _6:40_. Vector looked at Espio. "Maybe GUN is here already?" he asked hopefully.

Espio strode forward cautiously and peered out into the hall. There were dozens of dead Chaos Clones and about five twitching ones, but none of them were alive. "I think it's safe to check," the chameleon said. He gestured for Vector and Charmy to follow him down the hall.

They stepped softly (buzzing softly in Charmy's case) down the corridor, with Espio in the lead, blending in with the beige walls and red velvet carpeting almost perfectly. Downstairs they could hear gunshots and shouts. There was no denying it- GUN had finally arrived.

When they reached the flight of stairs leading to the first floor, Espio stopped and turned to his teammates. "I don't know about this guys. I think we should go back to the Oval Office and wait for them to come to us," the chameleon said nervously, reverting back to his normal shade of violet.

Vector clapped one large hand to his forehead. "_Now_ you think of that. Well guess what, we're halfway there. Let's just go down there and greet them with open arms! They know who we are!" he said.

"I'm not worried about them not recognizing us," Espio said, pausing so that the gunshots didn't interrupt him. "I'm just worried that they might kill us! God knows how jumpy they must be!"

We'll move slowly. If we don't attack, they won't attack, right?" Vector said.

Espio sighed and looked down the steps. "Fine," he said. "But if I die, I'm blaming you!"

"If you die, you won't be blaming anybody, because you'll be dead!" Vector snapped. Espio looked like he was about to say something else, but he just shook his head and led them downstairs.

The gunshots seemed to come less frequently now. Perhaps GUN had seized control of the situation. Or maybe they were all dead by now. It was a risk that the Chaotix had to take. They crept down the stairs and rounded a corner. Nothing. No soldiers, no clones, nothing. Espio nodded at Vector and Charmy, and they followed closely behind him as he advanced down the corridor. They were almost at the end when something came around the corner. The Chaotix all froze, and whatever it was quickly disappeared.

"Hello?" Vector called.

There was silence. Then, "Who are you?" A soldier peered around the corner, his M4 assault rifle raised.

"Um... we're the Chaotix Detective Agency. We're the ones who sent the distress signal. Are you GUN?" Vector called.

The soldier stepped out from cover cautiously. He regarded the crocodile, the chameleon, and the bee with interest. "You guys sent the distress signal? Where is the President?" he asked.

Vector and Espio glanced at each other. "We don't know. He wasn't here when we arrived. Nobody was," Espio said.

The soldier sighed and lowered his weapon. "So what are you guys doing here anyway? This isn't a great place to be at this time. I thought our troops were here already," he said, stepping forward.

"No one was here," Vector replied. "Why shouldn't we be here?"

"Didn't you see the streets? Those things are everywhere. If anyone goes outside, they kill them," the GUN soldier said, regarding the Chaotix with surprise. The soldier became slightly suspicious. Perhaps this was all an elaborate trap made by the Chaos Clones in order to weaken the GUN resistance even more. However, the soldier hadn't heard of any clones working alongside other species, so he was confident that the Chaotix were telling the truth.

Vector blinked. "We were on the streets already, and we didn't see anything. No humans, and only one of those blue things," he said. The gunshots had all but disappeared by now, and the Chaotix could now hear GUN troops hurrying towards their voices, their boots thumping heavily against the velvet carpeting.

The GUN soldier looked around the corner, then looked back at Vector. "Well, it looks like you're safe now. There is an evacuation jet waiting outside, and since the President," the soldier paused for a moment, "isn't here, I suppose we can fly you to the GUN Fortress. There are hundreds of refugees there," he said at last.

Vector looked at Charmy, then at Espio. "Sounds good to me. What do you guys think?" he asked. Charmy nodded vigorously, but Espio caught sight of something sticking out of his wrist gauntlet. He pulled it out to see that it was the picture of Sonic and Shadow that was on the President's desk.

"I think I've got a better idea where you can take us," the chameleon said to the GUN soldier.

--

****

Location: Prison Island

Time Remaining: 2:17

Shadow fed three more shells into the bottom of the police issue entry shotgun, cocked it, then shot another clone in the face as it lunged at him. "How about now?" he asked Rouge impatiently.

"Not quite yet. A few more minutes," Rouge said, her eyes not leaving the digital map on the control panel, showing her the locations of the guard robots all across the island. A few minutes ago, they had lined up in one long row across the entire island and had started to move forward, as though they were searching for something. But now, luckily, they seemed to have given up their search and were all heading to the westernmost area of the island. Rouge sincerely hoped that they were preparing to recharge their batteries, as Shadow was really beginning to lose his patience.

Meanwhile, the ebony hedgehog was standing stock still, blasting holes in every clone within range. His lips were pursed, and his face remained expressionless the entire time. Shadow cocked the gun once more and fired the last shell into a Chaos Clone's groin, doubling it over. Shadow kicked it through one of the reinforced glass walls of the control room and watched as it tumbled through the air, then joined its dozens of fallen comrades on the first floor.

Another clone leapt at Shadow, swinging across the gap between the spiraling staircase and the control spike on one of the steel beams running parallel across the ceiling. Shadow reached into his coat pocket for more shells, but his hand found nothing but air. He quickly solved this minor inconvenience by swinging the shotgun like a baseball bat, smashing the stock of the gun into the clone's head as it landed next to him. It spun 360 degrees, then lost its balance and, like its predecessor, fell off of the control spike.

"Just another brick in the wall," Shadow muttered to himself, throwing the shotgun down after the clone.

"Shadow," Rouge said suddenly.

The black and red hedgehog glanced at her. "What?" he asked gruffly. He sincerely hoped for some good news, or else he would have to take his anger out on even more Chaos Clones.

Rouge looked up at him, her eyes wide. "I think they're all recharging," she said. "But if I'm wrong, then we just blew the only chance that we'll ever get."

Shadow looked at Rouge, then at the control panel, then down at the dead Chaos Clones on the first floor. He didn't care whether he lived or died, really. It didn't matter to him. But he did care if Rouge lived or died. She was looking to him for advice, and he didn't want to be the reason why they failed. Shadow hesitated, then looked Rouge in the eyes. "Do what you think you should," he said.

Rouge lowered her head back to the control panel. She couldn't remember the last time she had been under this much stress. There were the bodies of dead Chaos clones everywhere she looked. Killer robots were getting closer and closer to killing one of her most powerful allies. The fate of everything she cared about seemed to be in her hands. She pushed the button, releasing a surge of electricity through the wires connected to the island's giant battery. There was a moment of complete silence, then the entire island shook as though it had just been smashed by a gargantuan hammer.

Shadow staggered forward, teetering dangerously at the edge of the control spike. He reached up and grasped the steel frame around the shattered glass wall to steady himself, but another violent tremor caused the hedgehog's feet to slide forward and over the edge. Shadow yelped in surprise as he began to slide down the steel frame, his legs flailing out in the open air. The only thing that saved him from falling to his death was the mechanical claw over his left hand, which gave him the strength to hold on. He heard Rouge cry out from above and looked up to see her leaning over the edge of the control spike.

"Give me your hand!" the bat cried, extending her arm down as far as she could. Down below, half a dozen Chaos Clones were roaring in delight, sensing the peril that Shadow was in.

Shadow reached up with his flesh and blood hand in an effort to reach Rouge. Their fingertips brushed, but Shadow couldn't reach. The frame was attached to the control spike at least a two feet below the top of the spike, making it physically impossible for Shadow to reach Rouge. It didn't help that the island was still shaking, though not quite as violently.

"I think my plan to fry the robots is working!" Rouge called down to Shadow over the low rumbling noise.

"I'm pretty sure it is, now help me up!" Shadow shouted. "Here, I'll try to climb this thing a bit," he said. He grasped the steel bar with both hands and began to shimmy upwards, getting ever closer to the top.

"Watch out!" Rouge shouted suddenly.

Shadow pivoted his head to see a Chaos Clone in midair, only three meters away from him. It smashed into Shadow's back, slamming his body against the side of the tower. Shadow cried out in pain and slid down the bar a few inches, and the clone held on to Shadow's ankles, trying to drag the hedgehog down with him. Shadow tried helplessly to kick the creature off of him, but both of its huge hands were wrapped around his ankles, preventing him from doing any such thing.

"Hand on a minute!" Rouge shouted from above.

"Wait!" Shadow cried, but it was too late. Rouge had already disappeared. _My God, if I die..._ Shadow thought to himself. Moments later, Rouge appeared at the edge of the control room.

"Hold still!" she cried, aiming a Glock handgun down at the Chaos Clone's head.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Shadow cried in alarm. "Rouge, no offense, but you can't shoot worth a shit!"

"You're barely two feet below me, I can make it!" Rouge protested.

"Alright, whatever!" Shadow cried as he slid downwards a few more inches. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his forehead against the side of the control spike, trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Ready?" Rouge asked.

"Yeah."

_BAM! _Shadow felt a great weight suddenly fall from him. He opened his eye and looked down. The Chaos Clone was falling down, a hole directly between its eyes.

"Thanks," Shadow said, blinking.

"Don't mention it," Rouge said, tossing the gun away and pulling Shadow up into the control room. The tremors had faded into a low rumbling off in the distance by now, and the Chaos Clones seemed to have lost most of their determination to kill the pair.

Rouge hurried over to the control console to see if her idea had worked. After a few moments of reading it, a grin spread across her face. "It worked," she said. "Look."

Shadow peered at the small screen that was supposed to show the whereabouts of every guard robot on the island. It showed that there were no active guards on the island anymore. Shadow looked up at Rouge, impressed. "Good job. That's something I thought only Tails could do," he said.

"Hey, I know how to use computers too," Rouge said, peering down at the first floor. "I don't see anything down there," she said, looking at Shadow.

"You think it's safe?" he asked.

Rouge just shrugged. "I guess it's worth a look. Come on," she said, heading for the spiral staircase leading to the first floor.

Shadow followed her, picking an Uzi submachine gun off of the floor on the way. They made their way down the stairs slowly, careful not to make too much noise in case of any sneaky Chaos Clones waiting to ambush them. They had no such trouble, and reached the first floor unscathed, save for any wounds that they had acquired while holding out on top of the spike.

"Hang on," Shadow said just as they were about to leave the building. "I don't like this, let me check it out."

"Yeah right, and let you have all the fun if there's any trouble? I can take care of myself," Rouge laughed, following the ebony hedgehog.

Shadow sighed and reluctantly let her follow him. He knew that Rouge was more than capable of taking care of herself in a fight, but he didn't want her to get hurt in any way. Now that Omega was dead, she was all that he had left.

Shadow peered outside, holding the submachine gun at the ready. There was nothing, but the feeling that he was being watched never left him. "I really don't like this," he said again.

Suddenly four Chaos Clones dropped down from above the doorway, landing with a _crash_ in front of Rouge and Shadow.

Before any of them could move, Shadow had already killed one of them, showering its head with a spray of bullets. Another lunged forward, absorbing the gunshots in his right arm, then backhand punching Shadow in the ribs, sending him flying to the side.

Rouge instinctively leapt over their heads, flipping in the air with more grace than an Olympic gymnast. She kicked one of the clones in the back of the head with both feet before landing, whirling around, and slamming an uppercut into another one's chin.

The clone staggered backwards and smashed into another, sending them both tumbling down a rocky hill in a mass of flailing limbs and jelly. Before she could turn to face the final clone, Shadow zipped by, picked her up and flung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes before dashing out the door.

"What the- Jesus, put me down!" Rouge cried in alarm. It wasn't how she was being carried that she didn't like, it was just that her face was a mere inch from the ground, and Shadow was already skating at top speed, weaving through trees and leaping over boulders. The ground was blurring so fast to rouge that she felt sick.

Rouge was just about to speak up and tell Shadow that she was about to vomit when they skidded to a halt on the beach. Shadow roughly dropped Rouge on the sand and walked towards the clear, glassy water, panting.

Rouge crawled behind a large rock and became sick. After a few moments, she climbed over the rock, approached the water, and splashed some on her face. "Why did you drag me out of there? I could have handled that thing," she said.

"I know, but I wanted to get out of there. I'd had about as much of that building as I could take," he said. He stared at the water and shook his head. "I am going to _kill_ Sonic for giving us that job."

--

**A/N: **Well, here you have it. A relatively quick update, at least by my standards. I know there wasn't a TON of action in this chapter, but here was some. Only two more chapters left, and the last one is a sort of epilogue. Please hold on, and please review!


	14. Patterns of Inevitability

I sincerely apologize for the length of this chapter. At 21 pages in length, it's the second longest one in the entire story. I shortened it as much as I could so that I didn't have to make another chapter, seeing as I promised this would be the finale. That meant that I had to cut a lot of the more insignifacant parts out, even shortening the big fight scene I had planned for this chapter, which kind of disappointed me, but I did it for the sake of easier reading for you, whoever is reading this. I apologize, and I hope that you enjoy (let alone get through) this monster of a chapter.

--

**Location: Prison Island**

**Time Remaining: 1: 46**

Sonic paused to wipe sweat and grime away from his face before climbing over a rotting tree lying in his path. He glanced up at the sky, trying to estimate what time it was by the location of the sun. _I'd say it was about seven o'clock_, the blue hedgehog thought to himself. How long would that make it since they'd arrived on the island? God, Sonic didn't even know. Long enough though. As soon as he found Amy, Rouge, and Shadow, he was getting them out of there. He only hoped that Shadow and Rouge had been able to find a way to deactivate the guard robots by now. They had stopped chasing Sonic some time ago, and he feared that if they weren't all destroyed they could pose a serious threat when they tried to escape.

Sonic shook those thoughts from his head and pressed onward, determined to reach the missile silo and Amy. He didn't have far to go. After only about fifteen minutes of walking, he pushed through the forest into a small clearing. In the exact center of the clearing was a gigantic building covered with moss and rust. Sonic was glad that he had walked- he would have likely missed the camouflaged building had he been running at even half speed.

Sonic approached the tall building and pushed open a steel door that sounded as if its hinges hadn't been oiled in a decade, his ears twitching at the screech of metal against rusty metal. He stepped inside softly, not knowing if there were more guard robots inside as well as outside.

Sonic blinked and rubbed his eyes as his pupils dilated to adjust to the dimness of the interior of the building. The windows on the walls were covered with steel blast shutters, keeping all but thin rays of sunlight from peeking into the missile silo. The only other source of light was from the open firing hatch in the ceiling, which Sonic guessed had become jammed long ago.

Sonic looked up to examine the inside of the building. Above him towered the dark silhouette of a missile, forgotten by the maintenance androids that still tinkered away mindlessly at the unused machinery on the island. The entire tip of the missile was covered in rust due to the open hole in the ceiling above it allowing rain in, and although it had been dormant for almost an entire year, Sonic suspected that it was just as capable of destroying an entire city now as it was before Eggman, Rouge, and Shadow had blown the island up.

Sonic cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hellooooooo!" he called out. His voice echoed off the walls. "Amy?" Sonic shouted. There was no answer. Sonic frowned. Had she already found the emerald and left to find him? He certainly hoped not. He had told her to stay hidden in here until he returned. "Amy, if you're in here, I need you to tell me now! This isn't some kind of playtime, let's go!" he shouted. A rumble of thunder answered him from outside.

_What the hell?_ Sonic thought to himself. He looked outside and saw dark clouds swirling in the sky above. Crimson lightning jumped between the darker areas of the cloud, but there was no rain. Something was terribly wrong. That cloud wasn't there a moment ago.

Sonic had absolutely no clue that those same clouds were being viewed by people all over the world at the moment. At Tails' Workshop, the young kitsune was sitting outside with his face in his hands and his shoulders slumped in defeat. Half a mile away from there, Vector and Espio looked at each other nervously before looking back out the window of the President's private jet at those all-too-familiar clouds. In Grand Metropolis, the last remaining GUN soldier in the GUN Headquarters building caught sight of the clouds just before a Chaos Clone grabbed him by the neck and hurled him out a window.

Sonic was jerked back into reality by a soft sound coming from the opposite end of the building. "Amy?" he said again. Still no answer. Sonic sighed in frustration and decided to climb to one of the many catwalks surrounding the missile to try to spot the pink hedgehog. "Amy, if I find you hiding, you're dead," Sonic said. He looked around the building as he reached the highest catwalk. Nothing caught his eye, save for a peeling GUN logo painted on one wall and the dimly flashing missile launch panel. Sonic growled in frustration, and was about to leave the building in search for Amy when something caught his eye. Coming from the westernmost part of the room was a soft, pleasant green glow. Sonic frowned.

"Amy? Come on, I know that's got to be you. Do you have the emerald or what?" he called. Still no answer, but Sonic figured he heard soft footsteps from that side of the room. "Okay Amy, if you want to play like that, I'll play with you too. But I'm in no mood for this, so if you don't want to see me get angry, come out now," he said as he approached the green light. To his surprise, it seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer the closer he got. Sonic began to jog lightly, which was twice as fast as any human could ever run. But by the time he got there, the light was gone.

"Dammit Amy!" Sonic shouted angrily. He was about to turn around when something caught his eye. It was Amy's Piko Piko Hammer, laying on the floor. Sonic frowned. Amy never went anywhere without it, so she must be close by. Suddenly something occurred to Sonic that hadn't before. Maybe those footsteps didn't belong to Amy at all. Sonic licked his dry lips nervously and looked around. A small section of the wall to his left seemed to be made of glass, but it was dark beyond it. Sonic frowned and approached it curiously. There was something beyond that glass. Sonic could see its outline, but he didn't know what it was exactly. He looked to the side and saw a metal alloy door and a small control panel next to the large window. Sonic strode over to the control panel and examined it carefully. It followed the basic principles of GUN security: a simple four letter code. Next to the series of buttons labeled from 1 to 9 on the control panel was a small switch that emanated a soft, cream colored glow. A light switch. Sonic shrugged and flipped the switch casually, then jumped at what he saw in the room beyond the glass window. Inside was Amy. She had pulled her knees up under her chin, and she had her face buried in her forearms. Sonic noticed that her shoulders were shaking. _Is she crying?_ Sonic thought, aghast. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Amy cry. She may be annoying, but she was a tough girl.

"Amy!" Sonic shouted at the glass. She didn't respond. Perhaps the room was soundproof. Sonic rapped on the glass with his knuckles. "Amy! What happened?" he shouted.

Amy glanced up, a look of surprise on her face. Her eyes lit up when she saw Sonic. She leapt to her feet and ran over to the glass. She seemed to be trying to say something to him, but he couldn't hear her at all.

"I can't hear!" he shouted, pointing at his ears so she could understand him. Amy blinked. She looked at the rest of the missile silo behind Sonic, then shook her head in frustration. To Sonic, it seemed as though she were trying to find something. Suddenly her eyes lit up once more, and she pointed frantically at the Piko Piko Hammer, which was still clutched tightly in Sonic's right hand.

Sonic could understand her meaning without her needing to tell him. She wanted him to break the glass window with the hammer. "Okay then," Sonic said slowly. He had never used it before, but he had seen Amy smash through solid concrete with it. "Stand back," he told Amy, pointing at the far wall of the apparent prison cell. Amy stepped back until she reached the wall. Sonic took a deep breath and swung the hammer down at the glass.

_Ding!_ It bounced right back off harmlessly. Sonic looked shocked. Amy, on the other hand, looked as though she were about to give up hope. Had GUN found a way to make reinforced glass _that_ strong? Sonic muttered a curse to himself and examined the glass where the hammer had hit. To his delight, there was a small crack in it. If he continued hitting it with that much force, it would break in no time.

"Hang on, I'm going to get you out of there," Sonic promised Amy. She looked incredibly worried, but trusted Sonic and stayed near the far wall. Sonic pulled the hammer back as though he were preparing to hit a baseball, then swung at the small crack in the glass with all his might. Unfortunately, all his might just wasn't enough.

The recoil of the hammer sent Sonic spinning clockwise 180 degrees- right into a clenched fist. Sonic staggered backwards, slamming into the glass window. Dazed, he tried to get up, but before he could regain his balance he felt a hand close around his throat and hoist him into the air. Then the muzzle of a handgun appeared so close to Sonic's face that he could kiss it. Sonic's eyes traveled down from the gun, to a hand, to an arm, until he saw the face of his attacker.

"Well, well, I guess you are as stupid as I always thought you were, blue hedgehog," Apollo snickered, his cold eyes flashing with his victory. "Your little girlfriend there put up quite a fight," he said, glancing at Amy through the glass. "I'm surprised that you never even considered forming a relationship with her. I think you two would get along perfectly. After all, you both seem to have a strange sense of pity for things weaker than you."

Sonic blinked. "Me and Amy?" he gasped, letting go of the Piko Piko Hammer and loosening Apollo's grip on his throat slightly with his hands. "You don't know how annoying she can get. Plus, I think that's the only thing we have in common," he said, grinning. Then Sonic stopped when he saw the bloody bandage on Apollo's upper arm. "Hey, I remember you!" Sonic said suddenly, his eyes widening.

"I know you do," Apollo hissed, his finger twitching on the trigger of the gun.

"Yeah! You're that wierdo that Shadow clipped in the GUN building, aren't you? The one who was torturing Knux? He told me about you... Apollo, right? Man, I've seen some freaky people in my life, but I think you top them all," Sonic grinned.

Apollo snarled and jammed the gun against Sonic's neck. Then he seemed to gain control of himself, and a cold smile spread across his face. "Really," he said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "Well perhaps you'd like to see just how _freaky_ I can get?"

Sonic seemed to think for a moment. "Nah, I'll pass," he said, slamming his knee into Apollo's stomach.

Apollo coughed and doubled over, instinctively letting go of Sonic's throat. However, no sooner did Sonic land on the ground when Apollo regained his balance. He leveled the gun with Sonic's head and fired. The crash of the shot echoed throughout the building, but Apollo realized that he never hit his target. By the time he had pulled the trigger, Sonic had already disappeared. The orange hedgehog turned around slowly, his ears trying to catch any hint of where Sonic might be.

Apollo closed his eyes, willing the four Chaos Emeralds in his possession to appear, and looked at each one in turn. Yellow, violet, silver, and green. Sonic was carrying the turquoise, blue, and red Chaos Emeralds on him. Wary of Sonic's super form, Apollo kept the emeralds suspended in the air close to him, ready to make them disappear as soon as Sonic showed himself. Every now and then Apollo would check the reflection of what was behind him in the emeralds. "Oh, blue heeeedgehoooog," Apollo cooed maliciously. "Come out, wherever you are. You can't hide forever. Especially when the world is about to end". Apollo grinned, knowing Sonic had heard him. "That's right. Do you see those clouds? My master is here, blue hedgehog. I'd say he is just finishing up with Europe by now. Moving on to Russia, or maybe Africa. I wonder how Russians taste? Who knows, maybe he'll let me try it once they're dead–"

"You're pretty sick, you know that?" Sonic's voice said from behind Apollo. He whirled around and raised the gun, but Sonic was faster. He grabbed Apollo's wrist, twisted the gun out of his hand, and kicked it away. Sonic had no time to relish in his small victory though.

Apollo growled and swung his arm at the wall with Sonic still holding onto his wrist, slamming him into the solid layer of concrete lining the inside of the building. Sonic let out a cry as a surge of searing pain shot up his spine. Apollo let him drop to the floor as he studied the large crack that Sonic had made in the wall.

"Maybe you're tougher than I thought, blue hedgehog," Apollo murmured to himself, looking down at Sonic. The cerulean hedgehog clutched his chest, deep, shuddering coughs wracking his entire body. For a moment he couldn't breath. He felt as though he had just been stepped on by an elephant. This orange hedgehog may be a complete psychopath, but he sure was strong.

Faster than Apollo could see, Sonic delivered a mule kick to his stomach and rolled backwards, putting a few meters of distance between them. They stood there for a few moments, staring each other down. There was Sonic, who was breathing heavily, his green eyes darting from the cell that Amy was trapped in and back to Apollo. Then there was Apollo, his face as calm and collected as a machine, but with a fury burning behind his icy eyes.

Sonic suddenly shrugged. "Well, not like staring contests aren't any fun, but–" for a moment Apollo was distracted by Sonic's words, which was the precise moment the blue hedgehog chose to attack.

Sonic aimed a kick for Apollo's groin, but his foot was merely met with air as Apollo calmly stepped backwards. In an attempt to counter this, Sonic aimed two quick strikes at Apollo's head with both fists, both of which were methodically blocked.

Sonic grunted as Apollo lifted his foot and delivered a powerful kick to his chest, forcing him up against the concrete wall. No sooner did Sonic blink the dizziness away did he see Apollo's fist coming straight at his face. Had it been anyone but Sonic, their skull may have been crushed. However, due to Sonic's lightning quick reflexes, Apollo's fist punched a hole in the wall instead of Sonic's head.

Sonic knew that he and Apollo were too close together now. If he tried to fight back now, they would both resort to grappling at each other futilely, and would get nowhere. Sonic had to find a way to save Amy and get the emeralds away from Apollo before Apollo's "master" could finish doing whatever Apollo said it was doing. Perhaps if Sonic could harness the energy of his super form he could stop it, but he couldn't do that if four of the emerald's were in Apollo's posession.

Sonic rolled to the side as Apollo brought his knee up, trying to crush Sonic's throat between the wall and his kneecap. Sonic curled himself into a ball and propelled himself forward before flipping out of the ball and leaping to the top of one of highest catwalks. Apollo sneered and launched himself across the room, vaulting over the railing on the catwalk and landing lightly next to Sonic.

"What are you going to do blue hedgehog?" Apollo snickered. "are you going to keep running, or will you stand your ground? Are you going to kill me? I know you couldn't do that."

"Maybe not, but I can beat the crap out of you. I've been needing to let off some steam for a while," Sonic said, grinning. Apollo spat over the railing, disgusted by Sonic's light-heartedness in such a time of peril.

"Give it your best shot then," Apollo said, then aimed another kick at Sonic's head. Sonic ducked, then caught Apollo's foot in midair and delivered his own kicks to Apollo's stomach and chest. Apollo staggered backwards, struggling to regain his balance. Sonic took advantage of the opportunity and leapt into the air, snapping a reverse roundhouse to Apollo's temple.

The orange hedgehog spun 360 degrees, staggered backwards, then slammed against the railing and tipped over the edge. Apollo tried to right himself in the air and land on his feet, but he was no cat. He landed with a loud _bang_ on the catwalk below them. Thrilled by his success, Sonic leapt down after Apollo to press his attack. Apollo slowly struggled onto his hands and knees, then picked himself up off of the grated metal floor. He felt something warm trickle down his forehead and into his right eye. Apollo wiped the liquid away from his face, then looked at his glove to see a small, rust colored stain against the white material.

"Had enough then?" Sonic chuckled, grinning at Apollo as though they were playing a friendly game.

Apollo's lips peeled away from his teeth in a sneer of fury. "Just so you know, I won't kill you outright. I'm going to make you bleed for a while first," Apollo said. He lunged at Sonic suddenly, attacking with a fury and force that Sonic had never seen before. Sonic had fought both Shadow and Knuckles before, and although they were both powerful, Sonic had never seen either of them as furious as Apollo was now.

The orange hedgehog's fists slammed down on Sonic like twin jackhammers, bludgeoning Sonic's arms and shoulders as he blocked the blows. Sonic seemed to draw further and further into himself with every blow until he was bent almost double, feebly shielding his face and body from the blows. When Sonic finally had enough breathing room to hit Apollo with one of his own attacks, he was swiftly punished by a flurrying counterattack of punches and kicks.

Desperately needing space to move, Sonic rolled right between Apollo's legs, whirled around, and aimed a flurry of quick punches to his back and the back of his neck. Apollo snarled and whirled around, swinging a backhand punch at Sonic's jaw. Sonic slid backwards, barely dodging the attack. Knowing that he would be pinned again if he didn't act quickly, Sonic pulled back his fist, mustered all of his strength, and aimed another punch at Apollo's face. Apollo swiftly brought his own palm up, catching Sonic's fist before bringing his foot up and slamming it into his stomach.

Sonic flew backwards at least three yards before half skidding, half rolling down the rest of the catwalk. Sonic felt a low rumbling begin in his stomach and force its way up his throat until Sonic couldn't contain it any more. Sonic vomited up everything that he had eaten in the past day, as well as a few sticky gobs of semi-coagulated blood. Sonic looked up to see Apollo, a smile spread across his face now. The fury of battle was gone from his eyes. Apollo knew that he had won.

"Why?" Sonic asked. He coughed, then spat another glob of bloody spittle over the edge of the railing. "Why are you doing this? What does your... your _master_ do that makes you follow him? You can just- you could help me stop him. Just give me the Chaos Emeralds, that's all you have to do!"

"You're begging for mercy," Apollo said emotionlessly. "I expected that. You won't get any, so don't bother."

Sonic became angry. He tried to stand, but his beaten body wouldn't let him."You didn't answer my question," he said. "Why do you do what you do?"

Apollo walked forward until he was standing over Sonic, then reached down and picked him up, holding the blue hedgehog by the throat. Sonic fought the urge to throw up again, although it would have amused him to see his rage filled enemy covered in vomit. Then, to Sonic's surprise, Apollo smiled. Not a snicker or a sneer, a genuine smile.

"My master knows," Apollo said dreamily. "He knows what I like. He does it slowly and lets me watch it. He absorbs the people first, until there's nothing but bones. Then he takes those too. Then the animals. They scream..." Apollo closed his eyes, as though relishing the thought. Sonic shuddered. It was at this moment that he knew that there was no saving Apollo. He was lost. Perhaps he had been lost from the moment he was born, Sonic would never know. But he was lost.

"Then the plants. But I don't care much about those. He usually takes me up before that. Then, from space, he lets me see him swallow everything. After he's done, there's nothing left. Not even the rock that everything grew off of. All gone," Apollo smiled again. "Why do I like doing what I do, blue hedgehog? In all my life, that is the only thing that has ever..." his eyes glinted dangerously. "... Made me happy," he said simply. He gripped the railing and pulled with all his might, ripping up a sharp cylinder of metal. Apollo held the makeshift knife under the soft area of flesh underneath Sonic's chin and grinned again, only this time in his usual, spiteful way.

"Goodbye, blue hedgehog," he said. "It's a pity you weren't such a fool. I could have used someone like you on my side."

Sonic lathered up a wad of spittle and spat at Apollo. "You're insane," he grunted.

"I know that," Apollo smiled.

Suddenly something slammed into Apollo from the side lifting him right off his feet. Sonic fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. He looked up in shock to see what had saved him. Slowly, a smile spread across his bruised face.

"What's the matter, blue boy? Couldn't handle this asshole yourself?" Wave laughed, zooming by his head. Above them, Storm was grinning stupidly to himself, shaking Apollo around like a rag doll. Apollo may have been strong, but his strength was almost nothing in comparison to the albatross.

"Over here!" Wave cried to Storm.

"Alley O-oop!" Storm chuckled, tossing Apollo to Wave, who caught the orange hedgehog under both arms. Apollo screamed numerous curse words at them both, threatening to murder their families in their beds if he didn't put him down, saying that he would rip their livers out, and other terrible obscenities even worse than that.

"You know what I think, Incredible Hulk? You just need to lighten up," Wave said, tipping both her and Apollo upside down. Apollo snarled and willed the Chaos Emeralds to appear, attempting to Chaos Control himself to a safer area, but Wave caught him before he could do any such thing. "I don't think those belong to you, angry man. Maybe you should return 'em to their proper owner, huh?" she said, tossing Apollo to Storm. Storm caught the orange hedgehog in a bone-crushing bear hug while Wave zipped by, one by one snatching the emeralds away from Apollo.

"_No!_" Apollo roared as Wave took the final one away from him. He sank his sharp teeth into Storm's arm, causing the albatross to cry out in pain and drop him to the floor. Apollo grinned, seeing that he had fallen right next to his gun. Before anyone could do anything, Apollo had snatched up the pistol, aimed, and shot the engine of Wave's Extreme Gear. Wave wobbled dangerously, then lost all control of the board as it plunged to the floor. Wave twisted in the air in a last ditch effort to save herself, but unfortunately ended up snapping the tail of her _Type-W_ extreme gear off. As she fell, the four Chaos Emeralds she had been holding were scattered across the floor

"W-wave!" Storm shouted in alarm, attempting to fly to her rescue. Apollo let him and the emeralds go, opting to go after Sonic instead.

Apollo once again leapt onto the catwalk, facing down Sonic. Despite the incredible pain in Sonic's stomach, he stood up. Perhaps there was a slight chance that he could still outrun his enemy. Apollo slowly approached him, his face expressionless. This time he didn't say anything. He pulled back the hammer of the gun, aimed briefly at Sonic, and fired.

Sonic expected to feel a great amount of pain, but he didn't. In fact, every nerve in his body seemed to go numb, and all of the pains from the battle seemed to disappear. Sonic looked down at his front to see a small, black hole in his right chest. Slowly, a small trickle of blood began to ooze out of the hole, sliding down Sonic's front and dripping through the grated floor of the catwalk. Was this dying? It certainly didn't feel like dying. On the contrary, he had never felt more alive in his life. Strength was coursing through Sonic's arms like electricity in a copper wire. Sonic looked up at Apollo.

No longer was his face emotionless. In fact, there was a great deal of emotion in his face, but it wasn't anger, as Sonic had expected it to be. It was fear. Sonic looked back down at his chest, and to his utter amazement, there was no hole anymore. There was no more blood either. Sonic blinked, catching sight of his quills. Instead of his normal, cobalt blue coloring, his quills were now a rich, golden color, and golden flames seemed to surround his body, hovering inches above his quills and fur. Sonic glanced upwards to see all seven Chaos Emeralds floating towards him from all directions, moving towards his head to form a majestic, glowing halo of color.

Apollo took a few steps backwards. He had feared this. He figured if he could kill this blue hedgehog before all of the Chaos Emeralds were attracted to each other, he and his master could proceed as planned. Apollo flinched as Sonic's now red-orange eyes connected with his. Apollo raised the gun and fired wildly at Sonic, as though the flurry of bullets would scare him away. Super Sonic stood his ground, letting all of the bullets hit him and bounce off his skin as harmlessly as small pebbles. The golden hedgehog then strode forward, slowly advancing on Apollo.

Terrified now, Apollo dropped the gun and began to step backwards as quickly as he could. But there was no escape for him. Apollo stopped as he bumped into the missile launch control panel. There was nowhere else to go. Sonic stopped in front of Apollo, their faces mere inches apart.

Apollo sneered. "So what now, blue hedgehog? Are you going to kill me?"

Sonic shook his head, then looked up at the dark clouds through the open space in the ceiling above the missile. Thunder seemed to clap continuosly now, making a sound that was almost like a roar of fury. "You're master must know that you failed, Apollo. I bet he's angry. I think I'll let him decide how to deal with you," he said. With that, he grasped Apollo in a bear hug and bent his knees. The grated metal floor underneath his feet seemed to bend, and a strange tingling sensation shot up Apollo's legs. Before he knew what was happening, they were already high above the clouds, hurtling into the atmosphere and towards Dyamisius.

Although Dyamisius had seemed very low towards the ground from Earth, Sonic soon realized that this was not the case. It was the fact that Dyamisius was so gigantic that made it seem so close to the ground. Apollo gasped for air, but in the cold, thin atmosphere above Earth, there was no oxygen. Sonic, however, seemed to be able to breathe just fine.

"You- you're going to kill me," Apollo gasped at last.

"No, I'm not. But your master might," Sonic said, almost sadly. They flew into Dyamisius, and were immediately plunged into heat as intense as the very core of the Earth. Even Sonic had to bow his head against the onslaught of heat and lightning. Apollo was defenseless, left to howl in pain as his quills turned to liquid and his flesh began to turn to a black crisp. They continued to fly upwards, when suddenly a searing blast of red energy struck both of them, sending them spiraling away from each other. The last thing that Sonic saw before letting himself fall back down was the blackened , burnt shell of a hedgehog, floating through the dark clouds while being struck by endless bolts of crimson lightning. Apollo had failed his master utterly, and now he was paying the ultimate price for it.

Sonic tore back down to Earth, flying faster than he ever had before. Sonic flipped in the air, landing gracefully on his feet outside the missile silo on Prison Island. Even if Apollo was taken care of, Sonic still had to deal with his "master", and Sonic had an idea that might work.

Sonic rushed inside and ran over to Storm, who was carrying an unconscious Wave on his back. "Is she alright?" Sonic asked worriedly. Storm nodded, too grief stricken to speak. He couldn't even bare the thought of losing Wave after Jet's death.

"Well I need you to find Shadow and Rouge. I know they're on this island, but I don't know where. If you can, I need you to fly all of them back to Tails' Workshop. Can you do that for me?" Sonic asked.

Storm looked at Sonic with large, tired eyes. "I'll t-try," he mumbled softly to himself. Without Wave to guide him, he wasn't sure what to do.

Sonic touched Storm's arm softly, knowing how he must feel. "Thank you," he said, then hurried up to the large missile in the center of the room. Sonic scanned the control panel quickly. He was fast, but even Sonic would admit that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. He wished Tails were here. After a few minutes Sonic was able to gather that the large, red button on the control panel was the button he needed to push to launch the missile. Unfortunately, he didn't have the key needed to activate the button. Cursing to himself, Sonic placed his hand on the control panel and let a surge of golden Chaos Energy flow into the controls, overriding the security features. The bright red words "Standby to launch" appeared on the small screen on the panel. Although Sonic had no clue where the missile was coordinated to aim for and didn't know how to change its course using the computer, he figured that he could do it manually without much trouble.

_Well, it can't hurt to try this,_ Sonic thought, and pressed the button.

"Please clear the area for launch," a robotic voice droned over the moss covered speakers. "Missile launch in thirty seconds. Twenty-nine... twenty-eight... twenty-seven..."

Sonic sighed. _Why do humans have to make everything so slow?_ he thought to himself. Sonic waited until the five second marker before he decided to leave the building. Outside, he poised himself to fly as soon as the missile cleared the forest canopy. _Three, two, one- _half of Prison Island began to shake uncontrollably as the missile took off, and Sonic had to turn and cover his face as the force of the missile launching blew a wall of dirt and debris in his direction. Sonic wiped a thin layer of sweat and grime away from his forehead and looked up to see the missile soaring upwards, with a long stream of fire and exhaust trailing behind it. _Time to go_, Sonic thought to himself. He crouched down as far as he could go, tensed his leg muscles, then shot up into the air faster than a bullet. Sonic easily caught up with the missile, but slowed down until he was flying right alongside it. As both he and the missile flew above the clouds, the missile began to lean suddenly to the right. Sonic caught it, straightened its course, and shot on upwards towards Dyamisius, towing the missile behind him. As Sonic neared Dyamisius, he lowered his head and sped forward as fast as he could. When a wave of heat hit Sonic with the full force of an amtrac train, he knew he was inside the monster.

Sonic tried to fly into Dyamisius as far as he could before the sheer intensity of the heat overwhelmed him. After all, he didn't want any harm to come to Earth unintentionally. Finally the pain of the lightning striking him and the temperature became too much. With a roar of pain, Sonic heaved the missile forward and threw it up even further into the cloud and let himself fall back down. Before the missile disappeared in the red and black haze that was Dyamisius, Sonic lobbed two spheres of Chaos Energy at it, superheating the warhead inside and causing it to react.

Sonic angled himself back towards Earth and plowed through the clouds faster than the speed of sound. He hadn't flown for more than two seconds when the missile exploded behind him. Had it been in the endless vacuum of space, the missile would have barely done a thing. However, reacting to the alien gas that made up Dyamisius, the explosion spread across it like a fiery virus, destroying all it came in contact with.

Sonic didn't have time to look back. He could already feel the searing pain at his ankles. Chaos Energy swirled and sparkled around heat blisters that formed on Sonic's legs, mending them in seconds. But even the Chaos Emeralds wouldn't be able to save him from something like that if the explosion overtook him. Sonic closed his eyes and willed himself forward until everything seemed to be drowned out: the pain of the heat, the thunderous roar of the chain reaction inside Dyamisius, even the rhythmic thumping of Sonic's own heart. Everything in the world but him seemed to stop moving. Although this feeling only lasted four seconds, it seemed like an eternity to Sonic.

_Boom!_ The heat was gone, replaced by the icy chill of space. Everything had returned to normal in a heartbeat, when moments ago Sonic's world had seemed surreal and mystical. Sonic was suddenly flung back into the atmosphere as the explosion finally caught up with him. For a moment Sonic's golden hue flickered, but began to burn just as brightly as before when Sonic began his descent back down to Earth. Just before Sonic fell below the clouds, he turned over in midair to look once more at the blast.

It was almost as though the very sky was on fire. It was a terrifying sight to behold, yet beautiful in its own strange way. Long wisps of smoke curled out of the flames, rising into space, making it seem as though the black soul of the alien entity was finally released from its body. Sonic closed his eyes as he fell through the clouds. It was time to go home. There was just one quick stop he had to make first.

--

Amy slumped her shoulders in defeat. Sonic had forgotten about her. That was it then, she was going to stay here, starve, and die. Amy buried her face in her hands and shook her head. How could he do something like that? After all she had done, chasing him, looking after him, making sure she was there to help him when he needed her, how could he forget? He had activated that missile and left her inside the building, not knowing if she would be safe or not! Luckily the prison cell she was locked in had kept her from being burnt to a crisp when the missile had launched. There was a thick layer of black soot caked on the glass wall of the cell. Amy groaned and passed a hand over her brow. _How could he forget?_ she wondered. _How could he forget about me?_

Not only would she be stuck here until she died, but now she could never marry him! Amy stood up suddenly and rushed to the glass window, beating it with her fists furiously. "Let me out of here! Somebody! Sonic!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. But nobody appeared. Amy rested her forehead against the glass and breathed heavily. _Calm down, Amy. You can get out of here, you just have to think. Look at your surroundings–_Suddenly there was a soft _tap, tap, tap_ on the glass outside. At first Amy thought that it might be that awful orange hedgehog. Until Sonic had arrived, he had stood there for the longest time, tormenting her by rapping on the glass with his knuckles, sometimes gazing greedily at her through the glass as though she had something that he wanted. Amy hesitantly looked up, but to her surprise, it was not Apollo that stood there.

"Sonic!" Amy cried happily. The golden hedgehog stood outside, grinning sheepishly through a space in the glass where he had wiped the soot away. Suddenly a new wave up hope rushed into Amy. He hadn't forgotten her! They could still get married now! "Come on, Sonic, let me out!" she cried.

Sonic tilted his head to the side, thinking. Then he grinned and wrote _Will you promise to stop bugging me if I do?_ for her to see in the soot.

"That isn't funny!" Amy cried angrily. Sonic shrugged, then motioned for her to step back. She did as he wished and watched in awe as he pulled back his fist and shattered the entire window with a single, Chaos Energy-charged punch. Almost as soon as the glass was gone, Amy leapt through the open window and tackled Sonic in a gigantic hug.

"Oh, Sonikku! I knew you'd come back for me, I knew it! Now we can run away and get married and–" she stopped. Suddenly she pushed him away from her and punched him right in the face.

"Ow! What the heck was _that _for?" Sonic cried in surprise, shielding his face from even more blows.

"You forgot about me!" Amy shouted angrily.

"What? I'm here, aren't I? How could I have forgotten about you?"

Amy glowered at him and folded her arms. "Hmph," she said. "Well, you sure took your time getting back here."

Sonic blinked. "Uh- you know what? You're right, I should've been quicker, okay?" he said, trying not to make her angry. He'd seen how dangerous Amy could be when angered, and had no desire to be anywhere near her when that happened, even if he was still in his super form. "Let's just... you know, go back to Tails' workshop. Storm must've gotten everybody there by now anyway. Can you forgive me?"

Amy scowled at Sonic darkly. Then a grin spread across her face and she threw her arms around Sonic's shoulders. "I forgive you, Sonikku! Just _don't do it again!_" she warned.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh God," he muttered to himself. He gathered all the Chaos Emeralds close to him, closed his eyes, and with a whisper of "Chaos Control" they were gone.

--

Storm, Wave, Shadow, and Rouge had just arrived at Tails' Workshop as Sonic and Amy appeared in a flash of golden light.

"Oh, there's the big man," Shadow growled, jumping off the back of Storm's Extreme Gear. "I ought to kick your ass for giving us that job! We must have had to wait for an hour at least to shut down the goddamn robots! What did you do? Were you too busy blowing up the sky?"

"Yeah, and getting shot by that orange hedgehog that you sniped in the GUN building," Sonic said flatly. Shadow blinked.

"Whatever," he muttered, shaking his head and storming inside.

"Don't mind him," Rouge said, trying without much luck to walk in a straight line after flying at supersonic speeds over the Atlantic Ocean. "He just got a bit beat up, that's all." Rouge blinked rapidly, trying to make the world stop spinning as she entered Tails' Workshop.

Sonic grinned to himself and entered the tiny building as well. To his surprise, all three of the Chaotix were sitting in various areas in the room. Vector was examining the rubble spread throughout the room, Charmy was reading some of Tails' old superhero comic books, and Espio was meditating calmly on Tails' cot. "So when did you clowns get here?" Sonic grinned at Vector.

Vector looked up at Sonic. "Oh, hey," he said. "Just flew in a little while ago. Got a free ride from GUN on a luxury jet." He gave Sonic a toothy crocodile grin and sat down on one of the overturned tool chests in the room. "How about you? Was that you that set that giant cloud on fire?" he asked.

"Sure was, but that wasn't any normal cloud," Sonic said.

Vector nodded. "Yeah, I know. I think..." he paused. "I think it might have killed everybody in Central City. It destroyed our entire apartment, and when we went looking around the city, all we found were those blue creatures."

Sonic seemed sad from this news. "Well, it's over now. I don't think anybody else is going to get hurt," he said.

"Sonic!" a voice cried from the doorway.

Sonic turned towards the voice and grinned. "Hey there, little man!" he laughed as Tails rushed into the room excitedly.

"Sonic, you should have been here! You should have seen what happened, you- you would have been so proud of me, Sonic! We all stood our ground here, and we were attacked by those Chaos Clones, and then Jet came with the Master Emerald, and we destroyed them all!" Tails cried, a huge smile on his face.

Sonic tousled Tails' hair playfully. "Aw, I am proud of you Tails. But what about Jet? Where's he?"

Tails frowned. "The Master Emerald killed him too," he said sadly. "The Rogues were so upset... I fell partly to blame for it, I was the one who told him to get it for us," he said, looking at the floor.

"Hey, you did nothing wrong Tails. Nothing," Sonic said, frowning. "I wish that he could have survived too, but if he hadn't done that, you would all be dead. Then where would I be? I couldn't go on without you, buddy," Sonic said.

Tails sighed. Sonic always seemed to have a way of explaining things to him to make him feel better. "How's Wave doing? What happened to her?" he asked, looking back up at Sonic.

"She'll be fine, she's tough," Sonic said. He sighed and looked down at the kitsune, then looked at everyone in the room. Knuckles was polishing the Master Emerald in the corner; Cream, Vanilla, and Cheese were all huddled together, smiling and laughing as the Chao did small victory flips in the air; Rouge was wiping blood away from a cut above a very disgruntled Shadow's right eye; Amy was sitting next to Charmy, trying to seem interested as he recited every line from the "Spider-Man" movie; and Storm was tending to Wave, who had finally woken up.

"Somehow Tails," Sonic said slowly, "I don't think that this is the end of anything. Actually, this feels kind of like the beginning of something big. Really big."

"Yeah," Tails muttered. Then he sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. "Phew! No offense Sonic, but you smell terrible."

In the corner, Charmy frowned and stopped looking through one of the comics. "Hey Tails, one of the pages is missing from this comic book!" he called to Tails. Tails, however, wasn't listening. He was too busy talking to Sonic. "Hey Tails!" Charmy said again. "Tails! Hey! Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails–"

"Oh, shut up Charmy!" Espio snapped at the young bee.

"But one of the pages is–"

"Deal with it then! It's not like it's the end of the world!"

--

**Author's Note:** Remember to read the epilogue please!


	15. Epilogue

"Ha! I beat you _again!_" Charmy laughed, pointing one small finger at Vector. The two had recently discovered the fun of multiplayer versus matches on "Call of Duty 4" since nobody was crazy enough to play on Xbox Live in times such as these.

It had been nearly two months since the beginning of the "war", as the Freedom Fighters liked to call it. It actually wasn't as much of a war as it was a frantic scramble to gather the supplies and materials needed to survive while they formulated a plan of retaliation. Despite the destruction of Dyamisius, every single Chaos Clone seemed to survive, and none of them became any more peaceful. In fact, they became much like mindless animals, attacking any moving creature, traveling in hunting packs, and sometimes brawling with each other for dominance over a certain pack. Despite their struggles, the victory against Dyamisius, the immediate threat, the Freedom Fighters still had a long ways to come before Earth could be called safe again.

Fighting openly was next to unthinkable. They may have saved many survivors, and their numbers were increasing every day, but the Freedom Fighters had yet to form a fighting force. By now, Tails' Workshop had been dug out and formed into a sort of cave running deep into the earth, with halogen lights and metal plates covering the walls. Right now, Vector and Charmy were in the Chaotix quarters. As they played the video game, Espio sat in the corner, reading.

"Yeah, well I got you twice, just remember that," Vector growled to Charmy, selecting which class of soldier he wanted to be for the next round.

"Out of _ten_ matches! I own you Vec, admit it!" Charmy laughed victoriously.

Vector shook his head and pressed the 'start' button on the Xbox controller. "Yeah, we'll see about that," he said.

Outside, Sonic zipped back to Tails, carrying two large jugs of gasoline. "Got this from Pine Grove. You do _not_ want to know how many Chaos Clones were there," he panted, dropping them next to one of the large power generators that gave the small city its electricity.

"I think that's it, Knuckles and Amy just got back from their trip. They got practically all of the gas from a single gas station," Tails said, sighing. No sooner did the kitsune mention his name did the bright red echidna round the corner, approaching them slowly.

Knuckles had healed from his past injuries quite well. He still bore a small, twisted "A" shaped scar under his right arm, but apart from that no one could tell how extensive his injuries had been. "Hey guys," he said, rolling his shoulders as he reached them.

"Hey, Knucklehead. What's up?" Sonic chuckled.

Knuckles shrugged. "Oh, not much. I just want to warn you that on our way back, my started up her story about how 'heroic' you were on Prison Island that time, and soon she started babbling about how you were going to get married to each other someday. I'd watch out if I were you," he said.

Sonic grimaced. "Oh, wowie. Uh... you think you can distract her while I make a run for it?" he said.

Knuckles snickered. "I don't think two brick walls and the defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers could keep her from getting to you," he said. Then he added, "And, uh... I wanted to talk to you about something". He waited for Tails to get the hint. When he didn't, Knuckles looked at the kitsune and added, "Alone."

"Eh? Oh, sorry. I've got other things to do anyway," Tails said quickly, sounding a little embarrassed. He hurried away, his two tails flicking back and forth nervously.

"Alright, what did you want to say to me?" Sonic asked, frowning.

Knuckles sighed. "Well, um... ever since what happened at Angel Island, I've been thinking about what you said to me."

"About me calling you a thickheaded retard?" Sonic blinked.

"No! About what you said about the choices that people make, that they do things because we want to do them and not because we're obligated to," Knuckles snapped, scowling.

"Oh, yeah, I remember that," Sonic said. "What about it?"

"Well, I realized that what you said is true. Nobody ever really _needs_ to do anything. I know you've always thought I was stubborn and impossible to deal with for the long time we've known each other–"

Sonic snorted. "Oh, you've got no clue, Knux," he chuckled.

Knuckles ignored him. "– So I finally realized that I don't actually have to guard the Master Emerald. For my entire life, it's been all I've ever cared about. I never even thought of anything else. But now, I realize that there's more to life than just honoring your ancestors". Knuckles licked his lips. "But even though I've realized this, I'm still going to guard the Master Emerald. Not as obsessively as I used to, but I just don't want it to fall into the wrong hands. I know I don't have to do it, but... I want to," he said.

For a few long moments, Sonic and Knuckles stared at each other. Instead of seeing a smartmouthed punk standing in front of him, Knuckles saw just what everyone else saw- a slightly self-assured blue hedgehog with a big ego, but an even bigger heart. Instead of seeing an uptight, stubborn party-pooper, Sonic saw what everyone else saw Knuckles as- a powerful yet gullible echidna with a short temper, but with good intentions.

Then everything returned to normal. Sonic put one hand on Knuckles shoulder and grinned. "You know, for an echidna with more brawn than brains, you're an okay guy," he said.

"And for an annoying ass, you're really an annoying ass," Knuckles muttered jokingly.

Sonic's hand flew to his mouth in a mock gasp. "What's this? Knuckles the Echidna telling a joke? Run for your nearest church, the world is gonna blow up!" he laughed. Then he shook his head. "Well, it's nice to know that you've lightened up a bit, Knux. But just so you know, to me, you'll always be that same, boring, stubborn, gullible, overly earnest, numbskulled–"

"I get it," Knuckles said, slightly amused. "Now shouldn't you be in hiding? I think I hear Amy coming."

_"That_ is a good idea, Knux. Thanks for reminding me," Sonic said. He closed his eyes, willing all seven Chaos Emeralds to materialize around him. As they began to encircle his head, Sonic took a good, long look at each of them in turn. Red, yellow, violet, turquoise, blue, silver, and green. For a moment, a feeling of hope stirred in Sonic's chest. With these emeralds, he had the power to save Earth. He could make it normal again. He _would_ make it normal again.

Sonic grinned as golden flames leapt up from his quills. With the power of the Chaos Emeralds, he could do anything. Sonic tilted his head upwards, gazing at the clouds. He smiled to himself again. _Anything_.

"Sonikku! Oh, I've been looking all over for you!" Sonic heard Amy cry from a short distance away. He pretended that he didn't hear her and stepped away from Tails Workshop, his eyes never leaving the sky.

"Hey, Sonic! I'm talking to you!" Amy shouted, angrily now. "I know you can hear me, don't pretend that you don't!"

Sonic bent his knees in a slight crouch, and Amy suddenly realized what he was doing.

"Don't you dare think about it Sonic! There's going to be hell to pay if you run from me!" she shouted.

She was almost a yard away from him now, but Sonic didn't stop. Underneath him, golden energy rushed to his feet, making them seem to sparkle with supernatural energy. With one great leap, Sonic shot up into the air, a stream of golden light trailing behind him.

"Sonic!" Amy screamed angrily at the sky. "I'll get you Sonic, I swear, I'm going to wring your scrawny little blue neck!"

Behind her, Knuckles chuckled softly to himself before turning back to Tails Workshop. _Oh Amy, when will you ever learn?_ He thought to himself in amusement. Amy continued to scream various threats at the sky, from bashing Sonic's head in with her Piko Piko Hammer to shaving his quills off and throwing him outside to freeze in the cold.

But Sonic didn't hear her. He was already long gone, hurtling through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound.

THE END

--

**Author's Note:** Well, there you have it. My first serious story, and it's finished. Quite a big milestone for me. I hope that you have enjoyed reading it more than I enjoyed writing it. Jk, jk, I had lots of fun with this. I would like to thank everyone who followed this story with the deepest sincerity. Without you, the fans of this story, it wouldn't be finished right now. If you enjoyed this, I'm planning a sequel for it.

There is a poll on my profile that I have put up to see what my readers want me to write next. I'd appreciate it a lot if you voted, and please, if you liked this story don't pick Hour of Chaos II without considering the other stories first. I'm leaving the poll up for a few more days still, so there isn't much time to vote. If you already have, thank you very much.


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